Kanto, AU style
by Emeralddragon12
Summary: This is Ash's story, but different. This time when he starts travelling, he is older, wiser, and, let's just say, notics girl's more. Especially one in particular. AU, Pokeshipping, Contestshiping. (May and Drew, while not the main characters, will become friends with Ash and Misty and travel with them on occasion.)T rating for mild swearing (crap, heck, darn)
1. Chapter 1

5 May 2013

**So this is my new version of Ash's journey. Whether or not it is improved is up for my readers to decide, but I think that the changes I have made make it a lot better. If this is your first time reading it, then the next paragraph will have no meaning to you, so you can go ahead and skip to the main story. **

**At first glance this will seem like a completely different story, and it sort of is. Now if I had written more before revising it would be more obvious that it really has the same overall plot, but alas, my ever dissatisfied mind wouldn't allow it to go on any longer without these changes. I think that this way seems more realistic, along with introducing Misty earlier which allows Ash and Misty's relationship to, well, we'll find out. Also, since these chapters are much longer, it will only take a couple more to get to Mount Moon, as opposed to the seven it took the other way.**

When Mom first told me I should keep a journal of my adventure I was a little hesitant. I mean, what kind of loser keeps a journal, right? But then, the more I thought about it, the more I realized she was right. Maybe the best way to keep track of everything that happens to me is to just write it all down as it happens. That way, if I ever want to tell my story, like when I'm some 90 year-old man sitting in my rocking chair and my great grandkids are asking me what life was like when I was their age, I can just whip out my laptop and show them everything I wrote about my Pokémon journey.

My name is Ash Ketchum. Right now I am 15 years old, and today is the day that I begin my Pokémon journey. My goal is to become a true Pokémon Master. Now I know that's pretty ambitious for a kid like me, but my philosophy is to shoot for the stars.

So what does it take to go on a Pokémon journey? Well, there are a lot of things that you need. First of all, you have to have a great partner Pokémon, someone you can depend on for anything. Most people who graduate from the Pokémon Academy and get their trainer's license that way receive one of the three starter Pokémon, which although not extremely rare, are always unique to their region and are usually considered to be fairly easy for beginners to raise. For the region I live in, Kanto, that means Bulbasaur, Charmander or Squirtle. But I didn't go to the Pokémon Academy. My dad taught me everything I know about Pokémon. He could have also provided me with my starter, but luckily I already had my good buddy Pikachu with me. The story of how I met Pikachu is actually pretty cool, and I wish I could have written it down when it happened, but I can put the short version down now anyway.

I live in Viridian City, which, if you don't know, is the giant city near the western edge of Kanto. In sharp contrast to the bursting metropolis of Viridian, just a mile or so to the north, in the area between and around Routes 3 and 5, is a large forest, named Viridian as well. My family, which consists of Mom, Dad and I, go there a lot for picnics, camping and in recent years, my dad had taken me out there to show me about Pokémon battles and care and other things like that. One day, when I was eleven or twelve, my dad had taken me out to show me a Beedrill nest. A lot of people would probably think he was crazy for taking a young kid so close to angry Beedrill, but he taught how to calm them down and make them feel comfortable so that they won't attack.

So after a few hours, most of which were spent playing with the baby Weedle, my dad decided to take a nap and leave me to my own devices. Being a typical twelve year old kid, I wasn't content to stay in the one area for long, so I wandered off and happened to find my way down to a stream. I bent down to get some water, but just as I was getting ready to drink, something yellow in the grass by the bank caught my eye. I crawled over to it to find out that it was a Pikachu, and it was covered in blood!

Needless to say, I carried it back to where my dad was resting and within seconds of waking him we were on our way to the Viridian Pokémon Center. As near as Nurse Joy could figure (most of the Pokémon nurses in Kanto are from the same family, and they are all named after virtues) this was a young Pikachu who had gotten separated from his pack and was attacked. She thought it was a Fearow, because they were known to go after young Pokémon that were separated from their groups, but there was no way to prove it. After she treated all of the injuries she asked me to take care of him, and I eagerly agreed, with my dad's full approval.

We became fast friends, and even after Pikachu was fully healed he chose to stay with me and become my partner. Together we became a lot stronger, and I have no doubt that he could whip any Fearow that came his way now. Also, since we became friends when I was still in that easily influenced stage of life I think we have a much better understanding of each other than most trainers have with their Pokémon. I won't go so far to say that we talk, like, in the same language or whatever, but we certainly can communicate our thoughts and intentions to each other pretty well.

Along with having a starter Pokémon to journey with, there is a whole host of supplies that you need to get so that you don't come running home after the first day. A good portion of the stuff are things specific to a Pokémon trainer, like a belt for the Pokeballs of the Pokémon I currently had on me (right now that belt is empty because, of course, I hadn't caught any Pokémon yet, and Pikachu, never having been officially caught, doesn't have a Pokeball, and I wouldn't want to put him in one now anyway). I also have spare Pokeballs for catching new Pokémon, my solar powered Pokedex with full information on all Kanto Pokémon, and a small pouch full of potions and other Pokémon medicines. Most of the rest of my supplies are just the basics. Mom bought me a special bag that is part of a set that the Silph Co. specially made for Pokémon trainers. It has a solar panel woven into the back which charges up a battery. This battery can be used to inflate the awesome sleeping bag which folds down to the size of a book at the bottom of the bag. The rest of the space is taken up by a few nonperishables, a couple sets of clothes and the slim little laptop my mom got for me to keep my journal on.

After double-checking that I had everything and making certain that Pikachu was perched comfortably on my shoulder, I descended from our flat into the gym below.

That part of my life probably needs some extra explanation. See, my dad, Ashton Ketchum, is the leader of the Viridian City Pokémon Gym which, of the eight gyms in the Kanto region, has always been considered one of the most prestigious, both because of my dad's skill in battling and my mom's ability to design a gym that fully tests the capabilities of challenger and Pokémon. Dad is unique among the Kanto leaders in that he had no type preference, which is because he says that it would be disrespectful to all of the other types.

At the bottom of the staircase is a hallway which leads all of the way to the elevator for the building, with doors leading to the main gym and the practice rooms of the gym trainers apprenticed to Dad, as well as their bedrooms, exiting off along the way. Since I knew a challenger was coming today, I turned left into the gym so that I could cheer Dad on in his battle and say good bye to both him and Mom, since she wasn't upstairs and she usually watched him battle.

Even before I had opened the door I knew that it was a heated battle. I could hear Dad's voice echoing out into the hall. "Well, boy, I have to hand it to you, you do know your stuff. Most of the challengers that come here are cocky, arrogant little kids just starting off as trainers, but you must have learned something from your training in Sinnoh. I'm glad to have the chance to battle you. However, our battle is just about over."

I ran into the gym so fast Pikachu nearly fell off. Dad was only that confident about a win when he used one Pokémon. _His _starter.

Just as I thought on Dad's side of the field was Rhydon. Dad had trained her, yes, a female, since they were both really young, and she was without a doubt his strongest Pokémon. On the other side of the field was a purple haired trainer commanding a Weavile. I could dimly remember that Sinnoh was pretty far to the north and much of the region was covered in snow and constant, making it the perfect habitat for Ice types like Weavile. Unfortunately, although this challenger clearly wanted to beat Ground with Ice, he either forgot or didn't think it was important that Rock types have the advantage over Ice types.

Mom, instead of spectating, was actually refereeing for this match, but as soon as I entered she called out to me. "Hey sweetie! Your father is just about to finish up with this challenger, and then we can give you a proper send off." I nodded to her with a smile, because I always liked watching Dad battle and I wouldn't want him to postpone his battle on my account.

When Mom spoke up, Dad looked over at me and winked, but the challenger was indignant. "Hey, I resent that. 'Finish up with this challenger.' I don't think it will be that easy."

Dad just smiled. "Well, Paul, if you think you are going to win, by all means, take the next move."

Paul smiled as well, but it was the grim smile of someone who didn't truly get enjoyment out of what he was doing. "Weavile, Metal Claw!" So that was what he was doing! He didn't care about the type disadvantage because he had a move to counter it. But I wasn't worried about Dad.

As Weavile charged Rhydon with glowing iron claws, Dad calmly gave his order. "Counter with Rock Blast then charge Weavile with Take Down." Rhydon began materializing boulder after boulder and hurling then at the challenger. Weavile was able to slice through the first few but it was quickly overwhelmed by the barrage and couldn't keep it up. The moment Weavile was down Rhydon flew at it with a speed that seemed to defy its great, lumbering size.

The battle was over in that instant. No challenger Pokémon that I have seen has ever been able to withstand a full body Take Down from Rhydon. But Paul didn't know that. I could see by the complete shock on his face that he was certain he was going to win this battle. But instead of looking devastated, he put on that same grim smile. "Good match Mr. Ketchum. I can see why you are considered one of the best of the Kanto Gym Leaders. I will see you again Mr. Ketchum, and the next time I will win."

He stormed past me and out the door without a second glance. The moment the door was shut, I smiled at my dad. "Well, he sure seems happy."

Dad threw his head back and laughed, and then he and Mom walked over to me. More specifically, Dad strolled over with his usual air of self-confidence, and Mom charged straight towards me, dodging obstacles in the gym like a Rattata in a maze until she could envelope me in a bear hug.

I had thought that there was something weird about her recently. Normally if Dad was going to take me out into the forest for an hour she would spend fifteen minutes making sure her little boy was a safe. Then she would find an excuse for a big, dramatic embrace that for me at least felt like it lasted five minutes.

Up until this point she had been extraordinarily calm. Other than fretting a little too much about how my bag was packed, Mom really didn't act overly concerned about the fact that I was about to go on the biggest journey of my life, one that would take me hundreds of miles from home and potentially put me in life or death situations. But the moment she wrapped me in her arms, I knew that she was really in a state of shock over the whole thing, like she didn't believe I was really going to go until I showed up in front of her with my bag packed and my running shoes on.

"Easy Delia," Dad said as he neared us, putting a hand on Mom's shoulder. "If you squeeze him anymore, we might have to treat him for broken ribs." I don't know if it was Dad's joke or my leaving, but when she finally let me go I thought I could see tears in her eyes.

"I'm sorry if I hurt you sweetie. I just, I can't believe you're really going. My little boy is all grown up."

Now I was certain that she was crying. For a moment I wanted to make some kind of sarcastic remark, to act all macho like Dad would, and tell her that I'd be just fine. Instead I threw myself into her arms and cried with her.

When we pulled apart Mom smiled at me. "Ash, sweetie, I, I'm glad that you're going to do this. If you want to be a Pokémon Trainer, then you need to go on a Pokémon journey."

"Thanks Mom, that means a lot to me."

"Hey champ," Dad slapped me playfully on the arm. "I met your mom when I went on my journey. Maybe you will meet your future wife on yours, kid."

Mom blushed, and I just rolled my eyes. About every fifth time we talked about my journey, Dad brought up dating, and vice versa. "Yeah, whatever Dad." Suddenly I realized this was it. It was time to go. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to say good bye to your parents when you are about to go on the biggest trip of your life. Really, the best thing to say is just, "Good bye Mom, Dad. I'll call you when I get to Stone Town."

"And I'll be seeing you again soon anyway son." When I gave him a look he continued. "If you want to get all of the Kanto Gym Badges, you're going to have to challenge me sometime."

I gave him a half sarcastic salute and Mom a little wave, then turned to where Pikachu had hopped off my shoulder when Mom had charged me. "Ready to go, bubby?"

"Pika! Pikachu!" He climbed up onto my shoulder and gave me the same salute I'd just given my dad.

"I'll take that as a yes." I only looked back once as I headed towards the door.

Because I've lived in Viridian City since I was born, it took almost no time at all for me to get to the north end of town. Within the hour I was on the road to Stone Town with only one little mishap.

I was getting pretty close to the city limits, when I heard a weird rattling noise from inside a trash can. I knew that sometimes city Pokémon get hungry and dig for trash just to get something to eat, so I thought I'd check it out. Hopefully I'd get a new Pokémon out of it.

Just as I was nearing the bin, it fell over and out popped a Meowth. The poor thing looked confused, but when it saw me it tried walking in my direction. I quickly noticed that it was limping and favoring its left forepaw.

"Little guy, what's wrong? Is your paw hurt?"

Suddenly the Meowth rose up onto its hind legs and gave a very human sounding laugh. "What's wrong is that yous is gonna give us dos Pokeballs ya got." Before I could even register the fact that this Meowth was talking to me two people rose up out of the shadows in the alley behind it.

The one on my left was a girl with really long reddish hair that stuck out in the most ridiculous hairdo I'd ever seen. She was wearing a solid black blouse and a black skirt, but I could tell by how wrinkled and patchy they were that it was probably her only pair of clothes. The guy on my right had slightly shaggy blue hair, and his clothes consisted of a black T-shirt and shorts, just as ragged as the girl's. They both had a Pokeball in their hands, and grim looks on their faces.

"To take from those greedy moneybags!" the girl said.

"And to escape from a life that's a horrible drag!" the boy responded.

"Jessie!"

"James!"

The girl, Jessie, looked like she was about to say the next line in what I was coming to understand was some kind of motto, but the Meowth used its Fury Swipes attack on them to shut them up. "You morons, I told ya dat we don't got time for dat!"

"Right, sorry. Of course, Meowth." Came the muffled response from the boy, presumably James.

After I got over the shock of being part of what was clearly a not too well thought out mugging, I noticed that the two humans weren't that much older than I was, maybe 17 or 18. I couldn't really tell how old the Meowth was, because I wasn't an expert in those kinds of things, but judging by its slight speech impediment it probably hadn't been talking for too long. Wait, what am I saying? Meowth aren't supposed to talk at all!

Pikachu and I tried to sneak away quietly while they were distracted, but the moment we moved Jessie noticed. "Hey you! Get back here and give us that Pikachu!"

I immediately turned around to face them. I made a choice right then and there that I wasn't going to allow these Pokémon thieves to run wild, because if there is one thing I can't stand, it is people who think they can just go around stealing Pokémon and breaking up friendships. "If you want my Pikachu you're going to have to fight me for him!"

"Oh, that can be easily arranged," James laughed. "Let's get 'em Koffing!"

"You too, Ekans!" The Poison types were summoned from their Pokeballs right in front of me. Even though they usually weren't that big, I had the strangest feeling that they were towering over me. But that wasn't the biggest problem.

"Hey, that's not fair! You're only allowed to send out one Pokémon at a time!"

James laughed at me. "Who said anything about fair? We're criminals after all. And anyway, we did send out one Pokémon. Each."

"Yeah. And if you don't like it, send out two of your Pokémon!"

I gave them a Mareepish grin, and then bowed my head in shame. Now it was Meowth's turn to laugh. "Hey guys, maybe we should find another twerp ta rob. Dis ones only got da one Pokémon!" All three of them laughed, which really irked me. Maybe I was only a beginner trainer, but that didn't mean I couldn't beat them!

"Oh yeah? Pikachu's worth ten of your Pokémon!"

"Well I hope so, twerp, 'cause it looks like that's all we're getting out of you."

Now I was fighting mad. "Pikachu, jump up on the Koffing and Thundershock it!" Before either of the thieves could react, Pikachu was already on top of the Poison Gas Pokémon. But he lost focus when the Ekans suddenly launched a Poison Sting. I pretty quickly figured out what the problem with one on two was. My one Pikachu had to constantly deal with attacks from both sides, but whenever one of their Pokémon got tired it could take a short break then come back stronger than ever. Fortunately, I had speed on my side.

"Pikachu, I want you to dodge around them with a Quick Attack, then when you see an opening give 'em a Thundershock!"

"Pika!" My partner called the affirmative. He began dashing back and forth across the road, sending Koffing and Ekans reeling in confusion.

Finally James got tired of it. "Koffing, stop that nonsense and use Poison Gas Attack!" Even as Koffing was preparing its attack, Pikachu launched a super charged Thundershock. The electricity caused the gas to explode. Pikachu was able to use its amped up speed to dodge to safety, but Jessie's Ekans wasn't so lucky.

For a split second, I saw the comical image of a Pokémon judge announcing, "Koffing and Ekans are unable to battle, Pikachu wins!" but it was shattered when the would-be thieves recalled their knocked out Pokémon.

"Alright little twerp, will let ya go dis time. But next time ya won't be so lucky." Then the three turned and ran into the alley.

I momentarily considered going after them. Those three, while not particularly dangerous, certainly would be a nuisance for anyone traveling through this area. But I decided to just let them be. Maybe someone would be able to get them on the straight and narrow someday.

"Pi Pikachu!" My little friend ran up to me and gave me a big tackle-hug. And I hugged him right back.

"Hey buddy, I guess we won our first Pokémon battle, though it wasn't really an official one."

"Pika, Pikachu. Chu chu pica pi."

I sort of laughed nervously. "Sorry buddy. My Poke-speech isn't that good. But I can tell you're happy, and that's what is important, right?"

"Pikachu!" He nodded.

"Alright then. Well, I want to get as far down Route 3 as we can before it gets dark, so we had better get moving."

"Pika."

Without random thugs attacking us, we made pretty good progress and by noon we reached a river that was formed from a brook and a stream that flowed east out of the mountains and was bridged by the main road. Of the two Routes that exit Viridian City to the north, Route 5 which follows the coast to Aquamarine Town and Route 3 which runs almost straight north and into Viridian Forest and exits right near Stone Town, I like Route 3 a lot better. I don't like the constant crashing of the waves on shore: it's sort of distracting when you're trying to wage a Pokémon battle. On the other hand, the babbling brooks and splashing streams have a soothing affect, and there are a whole bunch of Pokémon that call the forest home. Right now, however, I wanted to try my hand at fishing.

A short walk downstream from the bridge was a small pond, not even fifty feet across, but too murky to tell how deep. Taking the extendable rod out of my bag and giving Pikachu a nod, I cast the bobber out into the center with a flick of my wrist, coolly extending it at the same time. I had been sitting on a rock by the bank for a few minutes with pretty much no success when suddenly I got the feeling that someone was watching me. I turned around and, lo and behold, standing on the path behind me was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen.

Misty's Memoirs

May 5. Now that was a fun day. And by fun, I mean arggggggggggggggggggggg! Looking back, I guess it wasn't sooooo bad, and some good things did come out it, but no one likes to get eaten, right?

Yeah, I should probably back up and explain what happened. Mom had given me a month off from training at the gym to travel around Viridian Forest to look for new Water types. Great, thanks Mom. You let me think I'm getting some time off, but instead you just want me to run your errands, and I don't even get to go somewhere nice like the beach or Lake Rage over in Johto. No, little Misty has to go into a nasty, dark, disgusting forest, and the worst part is, there are barely any Water Pokémon in it, and the whole place is crawling with Bugs! Of all the horrible things in the world, Bug types are just, blech!

After I popped into Viridian City to heal my Pokémon at the Center and get a few potions, I was heading north when I saw some kid failing at fishing in a pond near Route 3. Maybe it's a little rude to call him a kid, because he turned out to be the same age as me, but I mean, how bad to you have to be with Pokémon to not even know how to fish? Seriously.

The kid was clearly at the wrong side of the pond, fishing at the wrong part of the day to catch anything but Magikarp, and appeared to be using just some run-of-the-mill fishing rod he picked up at a department store. Even the most average fishers could tell him at least five different things he was doing wrong, and with Mom as my teacher I'm pretty sure I'm at least a little better than 'average'.

Whatever the kid lacked in fishing skill, though, he made up for in his perceptiveness, because only a minute after I stopped to watch him, he turned around to look at me. From behind he had been pretty easy to judge, with his wild black hair sticking out from under his red cap; he sort of had this rough, outdoorsy vibe. But when he turned around I felt bad about judging him, 'cause he was kind of cute. He had bright brown, mischievous eyes, a cocky, but still pleasant smile, lips like…

Whoa, Misty! Reign yourself in there! You haven't even met this guy yet, and you're already thinking about…never mind.

Knowing Mom, she would think that the first thing I said to him was to cover up my feelings for him, which tells you all you need to know about Mom's romantic intelligence.

"You know you're doing that wrong, right?"

"Oh yeah," he grinned. "Who says?"

"Me, Misty Waterflower, daughter of Brooke Waterflower, the Cerulean City Gym Leader."

"And I'm Ash Ketchum, son of Ashton Ketchum, Viridian City Gym Leader."

"Are you mocking me, kid?"

He gave me this look like he thought I was an idiot. Can you believe the guy? Some kid, looking at Misty Waterflower like _she _was an idiot? And then he started laughing at me! I ran over to him, closing the distance between us in five seconds, and I had my hands around the hood of his jacket in another two. That shut him up pretty quick.

"Listen, you little punk. I really am the daughter of the Cerulean City Gym Leader, so you can just shut up, and tell me who you are."

"Which do you want first?" His question caught me so completely off guard that I dropped him back onto the rock he had been sitting on.

"What?"

"Which do you want first? Do you want me to shut up first, or do you want me to tell you who I am first?"

I hate people like that! You start to say something, and you clearly mean one thing, but they misinterpret your words intentionally just to make you mad. He even had that stupid smile back again.

"Tell me who you are!"

"I already told you, my name is Ash Ketchum, and my dad is Ashton Ketchum, Leader of the Viridian City Gym."

"Would you stop lying to me, you little kid! There is no way an idiot like you is the son of a Gym Leader."

"Oh that's rich, coming from a ginger."

Now he'd done it. If you really want to get a redhead mad at you, just mention her hair color and you'll have the fight of your life on your hands. I grabbed him by the hood again, and two things happened simultaneously. First off, the Pikachu standing on a nearby rock that was watching us like a tennis match, and who I'd soon learn belonged to the kid, jumped between us, and to this day I still don't know if he was trying to separate us, or shock us or just wanted his own opinions added to the conversation, because of the other thing that happened. Somebody decided he was hungry. But not just any somebody. Not even a remotely human shaped somebody. A giant blue Water type somebody. A freakin' Gyarados!

The atrocious Pokémon leapt straight out of the water and right at the three of us. Ash was able to throw himself out of the way, and Pikachu was small enough that Gyarados just passed over him, but I was directly in the path of those gaping jaws. They clamped shut around my bare midriff and we went hurdling forward; I foolishly remember thinking that if only I had worn something other than my usual tank top, things might have been different.

The fangs bit down into my belly and I felt an icy pain burning through my body. Every part of me was simultaneously burning and freezing as I rolled around in a world of green and red and everywhere a thrashing, flailing blue. I remember begging, praying to anyone and anything to make it stop. I would do anything to make it stop.

Amidst my screaming and the grunting of the Gyarados, I heard Ash yell something like, "Pikachu Thundershock the heck out of that thing! Knock it out, knock it out! Help me!" Suddenly, mercifully, the cold feeling just disappeared, but that just made the burning that much worse.

My vision was just a field of red; my entire body shear pain. I felt a hole, in my side, and when I put a hand to it, it felt sticky. Then the pain began to fade, and the world with it. Black started to close over the red, as numbness removed the pain. Then something else entered my field of vision and something disturbed the eerie silence that was descending on my ears. Ash's face and Ash's voice. "Misty! Misty, hold on!"

He disappeared again, but something, some sense of desperation in his voice pulled me out of the darkness. Even though it hurt more than I could ever imagine, I struggled back towards reality.

I couldn't believe how much Misty was bleeding.

After I threw myself out of the way of the Gyarados, Pikachu and I immediately started trying to get him off of her. I think he was using Ice Fang, because the entire area where he was biting was quickly turning blue, at least what wasn't covered in blood. We were quickly able to knock out the Pokémon, and instead of struggling to get it off of her, I just captured it. Part of me was hoping that I would be able to train it after it calmed down, but for the most part I was more worried about what was going to happen to the girl I had literally just met.

I grabbed one of the shirts from my bag and tied it around her to stop the bleeding. I knew she needed a hospital, but the question was which one. I don't know anything about injuries, but something like that probably needed to be treated yesterday. I had just come Viridian, yes, but I was pretty sure that we were more than halfway to Stone Town. Something inside me said that heading north was the best option, so I put my backpack on backwards and, with a little help from Pikachu, I was able to carry Misty piggyback style.

I don't really remember much of that journey. The only thing that really stuck was the burning of my legs telling me to slow down and the occasional moan from Misty spurring me to run faster. I don't even know how I found the hospital when I got to Stone Town. Everything was a daze of worry and tiredness. The last coherent thing that I remember at all from that day was stumbling into the hospital and collapsing, all the while thinking that this sure was a great way to start my Pokémon journey.

**Better? Worse? I still have the old version if you guys would prefer that I just write that. I am almost done with the second chapter as well, so there is no need to fret about poor Misty.**

**Until then, Emerald Dragon out!**


	2. May 6-10

After recovering from the mini heart attack I got waking up in a completely unfamiliar place, checking on Pikachu who was still asleep, getting dressed and enjoying the free meal and shower granted to all Pokémon Trainers that stay at a Pokémon Center (someone must have taken me there after I dropped off Misty at the hospital), I walked around the city for a while to get a feel for the lay of the land before heading over to the hospital to check on the patient I had brought them.

Let me tell you, the land didn't lie too well. The Pokémon Center, along with the hospital and a few other important buildings, were all grouped into a cluster at the south end of Stone Town, right next to the end of Route 3. Branching off to the east and west were arms made mostly of houses, stretching all the way to the foot of the mountains, and giving the entire town a Ponytashoe shape. The reason the area in the center wasn't filled with buildings was because it was already filled with something else. Massive boulders scattered here and there, some piled up in twenty foot tall mounds and smaller rocks filling all of the space in between. The part of my brain with the overactive imagination thought that it looked like someone was filming a movie called Attack of the Rock Slide and had forgotten to clean up afterwards.

I remember reading about how Stone Town was famous for several mines containing the stones that helped certain Pokémon evolve, including, interestingly enough, my Pikachu, but from the looks of things they were pretty much out of business. Only a half dozen people were even out and about, most of them en route from the local grocery store and their homes.

But even with the whole, abandoned town vibe I was getting, Stone Town seemed like a pretty cool place. The rising sun caused fascinating shadows to form from the canyons and cliffs making up the mountains to the north and west. The trees of Viridian Forest appeared dark and gloomy, but filled with mystery; their own shadows like outstretched hands, reaching towards the town and the people, inviting them to explore its dark secrets. There was no line between the three very different worlds. The trees of the forest faded very gradually and almost imperceptibly into the grass carpet of the town and the hills to the immediate north rose by such infinitesimal amounts that it was only by looking at the relatively flat land of the town and the towering peaks of the full mountains a mile distant could you see the real difference. And, as opposed to Viridian City, where the only Pokémon there lived in the back alleys scrounging for scraps, here there were three dozen Pidgey perched on the various roofs, with a handful Pidgeotto mixed in. As I stood looking around, a couple of Rattata came to play by my feet, and a Kakuna was attached to the wall of the Pokémon Center, waiting for the right moment to evolve into a Beedrill.

All and all, Stone Town seemed like a pretty peaceful place. Except for the rock slide, of course. I mean, it had plowed over all of the hills between where I was and the mountains. You could actually draw a straight line from the edge of the rock slide up into a ravine of the closest mountain, which looked like it had just collapsed on itself. Since many of the remaining houses were on the untouched hills leading up to the mountains, I could only imagine that the same had been true of the hills that were no longer there. It sent a sharp pang through my heart to think of the people that might have died in such a horrible event. Shaking those kinds of thoughts out of my head, I walked over to the hospital to check on the girl I had brought there last night.

The hospital was small, which made since as this wasn't exactly a large town, at least not anymore. Through the main doors was a sort of atrium, with only a half dozen labeled doors branching off in different directions around the central area. In the center was a sort of circular desk with several computers and a female receptionist on the inside, and she was talking to the one other person in the room, a lady also in her mid-twenties; the two were chattering like old friends. As soon as the receptionist saw me, however, she immediately cut her friend off and motioned for me to come over.

"Hey, you're the boy who brought in that girl last night, right? The one with the Gyarados bites? You had better go and see her and convince her that she needs to stay."

The receptionists request caught me completely off guard. "Umm, why do I have to convince her to stay?"

"Just, go see her and you'll understand. She's in the intensive care section, first door on the right." She pointed out which hall lead to the intensive care area, not that I need it as the door was already labeled. I was even more confused now, because surely it would be easy to keep a patient that had to be in the intensive care area.

Even though the receptionist had told me Misty's was the first room on the right, it wouldn't have been very hard to figure out which one she was in because there was only four others besides that one, another testament to the fact that this hospital probably didn't have much to do with serious injuries. I was just about to knock on the door when I heard the sound of adults shouting, and raising above it all the screams of a teenage girl. I crashed through into the room and upon one of the weirdest scenes I have ever witnessed in my life. It was so bizarre I can't even describe it how I saw it because it wasn't until latter that I got the full story, which does color how you see things a little differently.

The first thing you have to understand about Misty, and this is something that I wish I had discovered up front as opposed to in pieces through various discussions with her; she is extremely independent. I mean, for the first few days that I knew her she would get mad at me when I would offer to run down to the cafeteria to get her something, because she just assumed that I though she couldn't do it on her own. Coupled with the independence, she hates when people take care of her. She is the kind of person who, when she breaks a leg, would find a way to set it herself and just keep on going, which is sort of admirable, but also annoying in cases like this where she really needs to sit back and let someone fix it for her. Now to the actual setup of the room.

Misty was in the center, since it was sort of her hospital room, although she was doing everything in her power to NOT be in the bed. I couldn't count all of them, hard to tell who all the flailing limbs belong to, but there were at least two doctors and three nurses trying to hold her down. Misty's screams of, "Get off me! I'm fine! Leave me alone! Let me leave!" and the doctor's various assurances that she wasn't and that she needed to stay to recover were kept on tempo by the constant and extremely rapid beeping of the heart rate monitor and strange medical machines that she was hooked up to. Adding to the pandemonium, Misty had somehow released a Pokémon from its Pokeball that was either a Staryu or a Starmie; it was spinning around the room and shooting off Water Guns so fast it was just a blur. Another pair of nurses was trying to subdue it, but they weren't doing too well and everyone was getting pretty soaked. That explained why the receptionist wanted me in here so bad. She probably assumed that since I had brought Misty in, I knew her and would be able to convince her to stay. I don't know why she didn't come in here herself and try to help instead of talking to her friend, but I don't blame her for not wanting to be a part of this madness.

I wasted a lot of time running around the room trying to calm everyone down, but I don't think they even noticed that I was there with all of the general chaos going on. All of a sudden I realized I was going about it the wrong way. I ran back out the door, down the hall, through the lobby and past the unhelpful receptionist and her friend, across a few dirt roads, into the Pokémon Center, and into my room where Pikachu was just waking up. It only took me a minute to explain what was going on, and soon I was retracing my steps, abet with Pikachu on my shoulder now. Still ignoring the receptionist, I barreled into Misty's room of rioting, gave Pikachu a nod, and stepped waaaaaaay back.

"Pi! Ka! Chuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!" Pikachu's Thunderbolt lit up the room (not that it wasn't lit up already, but, well, ah, you know what I mean) and with the water everywhere everyone got a full dose. Not only did it cause everyone to stop moving (even Misty collapsed onto her bed and her Staryu collapsed to the ground along with everyone else) but it also made the monitors short circuit or something. Whatever happened to them they sure weren't making any more noise.

"Alright. Now that you guys have calmed down a bit, who someone mind telling me what the heck is going on here?" Immediately I was overwhelmed by a half dozen people all trying to yell over each other to make me understand, and I held up my hands like I was being physically bombarded. "Pikachu, help me out here." My partner began charging up another electric attack, but before he was even halfway ready everyone shut up just as quickly as they had started. "Alright Pikachu, that's enough, but be ready in case they start again. Alright guys, and uh, girls," I began, turning back to the assorted group of doctors, nurses and one invalid teenager, "one at a time, and don't start talking until I point at you." It must be a gift from my dad, this ability to give orders and expect people to obey. Then again, having a Pikachu on your side and ready to back you up helps a lot. "Is everyone okay with that?"

They all nodded, so I pointed at Misty so that she could start. "First off kid, who the heck are you?"

"Haven't we already been over this? I've told you two or three times now that I'm Ash Ketchum."

"The son of the Viridian City Gym Leader?" Her tone was so obviously disbelieving it sort of hurt. Was this girl just that overly arrogant or was there something about me that screamed not a Gym Leader kid? One would think she would be a bit more grateful, considering I had just recently saved her life.

"Yes I am, though I sincerely hope that one day I will be known for my own achievements, and not just my dad's. Like saving people's lives for example." I stared at her and she held my gaze for about twenty minutes before she was forced to look away. I could just barely hear her say something that sounded like "thanks," but I wasn't certain. "What was that? I didn't catch that last part."

"I said thank you."

"Thanks for what?"

"For saving my life."

"What about saving your life?"

"Arghhh! Thank you Ash Ketchum for saving my life! Is that what you wanted? Are you happy now?"

Pikachu and I grinned at each other and shared a fist bump. "Yeah. I think I'm good. So other than a couple of holes in your side from an overly friendly Water Pokémon, what's put a scrunch in your skirt?"

"I'm wearing shorts actually."

"It's an expression. Just, go on."

"I'm here, in the hospital, with doctors and nurses everywhere waiting get me whatever I need to be comfortable."

"So what is your complaint?" I usually loved being in the hospital, not because I'm some kind of freak who likes pain, but because of the very reasons Misty just listed. If I could find a way to get those parts of it without the pain that usually sent me to the hospital in the first place, then I would take it in a heartbeat. Thump Bump.

"I hate it! I hate when people are watching over me, making sure that I'm okay! Why can't they just leave me alone to do my own thing without bothering me?" This is wear Misty's independent personality began to reveal itself to me.

"So your complaint is that they are keeping you here, when you think that you are fine, and they keep bothering you and making sure you are okay when you've already told them you are and you want them to just leave you alone?'

"Exactly! You know, I never had this problem back in Cerulean. If I got hurt while training my Pokémon, Mom just slapped a Band-Aid on it and let me get right back out there."

"So Doctor," I turned my attention from Misty to the physician who seemed to be in charge, judging by the way he carried himself, "how serious are Misty's injuries?"

"Fortunately she seems to have gotten lucky. The thing that bit her missed all of her major organs, and within a week she should be ready to travel. But I would like to keep her here until then." He continued, raising his voice over Misty's attempts to talk. "We don't want to risk something worse happening, and if she moves around too much she might pull her stiches."

"Well how about this. I'm staying at the Pokémon Center for a while. If I can promise you that she will stay there in bed, would that be okay?"

The doctor tilted his head in thought. "Yes, I suppose that would be alright. If you are certain that she will actually stay in bed I don't see what is wrong with that. This girl has been a menace since she came in, and it would be nice to get her off of our hands. Let me just go fill out the paperwork." He nearly ran out of the room, the other doctors and nurses right on his tail.

The recently recovered Staryu hoped next to Misty on her bed. She patted it on the, arm I guess and told it that it had done a good job before returning it. I walked over to her bed and sat down, motioning for Pikachu to join me. "You know, with your fiery spirit, which is strangely out of character for a Water Type Pokémon trainer, I would have expected you to take more offense to the insult he just gave you."

Misty just shrugged. "I'm kind of used to that sort of thing. Everyone in Cerulean knows that I am very aggressive about my opinions, and if anybody tries to make me do something I don't want to, or stop me from doing something I do want to, they had better get out of my way. And my mom is the same way, so that disproves your slur against Water Type Trainers. Come to think of it, my grandmother is also like that."

"Hey, it wasn't a slur against Water Trainers. I've just noticed that they tend to be of a more mellow temperament. But that's not an insult to you, don't worry," I finished quickly.

She glared at me for a little bit, then started picking at a stray thread on the sheets. "So, um, why did save me? And why did you help me get out of here?"

"Well first off, even though I can be a sarcastic jerk sometimes, I would never leave a girl out in the woods injured and alone. The least I could do was help you out, especially considering the circumstances."

"What circumstances?"

I pulled a Pokeball off of my belt. "Can you guess what Pokémon is this ball."

She sat up straight. "You mean that Gyarados was yours?"

"Yeah, I'm really sorry about that," I answered, grinned sheepishly and rubbing that back of my head. I don't really like lying, but a little white lie like this wouldn't hurt anything, and I thought she might think badly of me if she found out that I had caught the Pokémon that attacked her after the fact, and for some reason this girl's opinion of me really mattered. "I haven't had it for very long, and it still doesn't always listen to me. I was actually working on training it when you showed up, and I guess it just reacted violently to an unfamiliar person."

"Wait, I thought you were fishing. Yeah, because I remember commenting on your lack of skill."

Jeez, now I know why you're told not to lie; you have to keep adding to it until things get out of hand. "You never heard of knocking out two Pidgeys with one Thunderbolt? I was fishing and training Gyarados."

"Oh, okay. That makes sense. And I do appreciate you getting me out of here. Most people would tell me that I should stay in the hospital; that it is better for me."

"What are strangers whose Pokémon attack you on the road for?" I chuckled at my own joke, and after a short while she grinned back at me.

Just then a nurse, one that wasn't in the room earlier, entered pushing a wheelchair. "Aw come on," Misty complained. "I can walk just fine; I don't need to be rolled out like some kind of invalid."

"I'm sorry miss, but it is hospital policy." You could see the gears spinning behind Misty's eyes, wondering if it would be worth it to argue or if she should just let them have their way. Judging from what I knew about her then, she must have been pretty tired from her injuries and fighting off the doctors, because she slumped her shoulders and mumbled a "fine."

The nurse helped Misty into the chair, and I walked with her as the nurse wheeled her out of the hospital and down to the Pokémon Center. After we got Misty checked in, I wheeled her down to her room, made sure she was comfortable, and returned the chair to the nurse. As I did so, she sort of pulled me off to the side and whispered, "Are you sure that you will be able to keep her under control? From what I've heard, because of that girl two of our other nurses have gotten injured. How do you know you will be able to get her to stay and rest, and that she won't go running around, pulling out her stiches."

I glanced in the direction of Misty's room, looked up like I was considering my answer, and then turned to her and smiled. "Don't worry, I have a few ideas."

Over the course of the next week, I spent a lot of time with Misty. I soon discovered that as long as someone was there to talk to her and keep her company, she was pretty content to just stay at the Pokémon Center and wait for her side to heal. Of course, it's not like we just sat there staring at each other. That would have gotten really awkward really fast. We talked about all sorts of things; for instance, I learned that it was her mother that was the Cerulean City Gym Leader, and her father was the captain of a pretty important ship that was praised as the fastest transport between the regions. Misty told me that she wished that she could spend more with him, because he was always away and even when he does stop in for a while, she had three sisters that got most of the attention. She then asked me about my family, and seemed pretty jealous when I said I was an only child.

"You are so lucky. Don't get me wrong, I love my older sisters. I mean, there my sisters right? But sometimes I wish they would just go away for a while and leave the three of us alone. In your family you get your parents full attention, and I get most of my mom's attention, but not really in a good way. Her idea of giving me her full attention is spending eight hours straight in training, and the only reason she doesn't include my sisters is because they stink at battling."

"I suppose it is nice, but sometimes I get really lonely. When Dad is battling and Mom is out shopping or something then it's just me all by myself. I wish there was someone, special to hang out with."

Suddenly I realized that the way I had said that sounded a little weird. I quickly looked away, at the wall, the floor, anywhere that wasn't Misty, who was surely thinking that I was some kind of socially awkward loser with no friends. After what felt like hours but really was only a few seconds she put a hand on mine, causing me to snap my head up. "Yeah, I know how you feel."

Suddenly I realized that her eyes, which I had just now noticed were the same green/blue color of the ocean, seemed just as wide and engulfing. I felt like I was falling into them, drowning in a sea of mystery just waiting to be explored. Was it just my imagination or were they get closer? What was happening? I felt different, but in a good way. For the first time I felt a connection with another human being who wasn't my parents. A small voice in my head reminded me of what my dad said: how he had met Mom while he was on his journey…

Abruptly and very annoyingly, Pikachu barged into the room. Misty collapsed back onto her bed and I slumped down in my chair, but Pikachu could tell that something had just happened, or was just about to happen. Sometimes I hate how well he knows me.

Trying to diffuse the tension, I picked up my little buddy and put him in my lap. "Hey Pikachu, what's going on?"

He began talking extremely fast and gesturing with his hands. He went so fast the first time I barely caught any of it, and I had to ask him to repeat it several times.

"Alright Pikachu, I've almost got it. A Beedrill swarm is doing what?"

At the moment a voice that I barely recognized as Misty's, because it sounded so weak and scared, chimed in. "Ash, I think you should look at this."

She was sitting on the edge of her bed, staring out the window with a petrified look on her face. Outside, I could see a massive swarm of Beedrill, so thick they turned the sky black and yellow. "Holy Tauros! That is a lot of Beedrill." Misty just nodded; her face ghost white with fear. "Hey, Misty, what's wrong?"

She didn't say anything, so I asked her again. "Bu, bu, bu, Buggggggggggsssssssssssss! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Try as I might, I could not get the poor girl to stop screaming, so I did the next best thing.

"Alright Pikachu, let's go deal with those Beedrill."

The two of us ran out of the Pokémon Center and onto the street where everyone was in almost complete pandemonium. Unlike in Viridian, were if someone or something attacked Dad and the local police officers would deal with the problem, Stone Town didn't have a Pokémon Gym or Gym Leader, and their police force seemed less than capable. Now, Dad might have taught me how to handle Beedrill that are calm and keep them that way, but for times like these Dad said there was only one course of action. "Ash," he said, "if you ever get stuck somewhere where you can't run away and you can't calm them down, the only thing to do is to fight."

So that's exactly what we did. "Pikachu, Thundershock 'em." He brought down about a dozen, and always one to jump at opportunity I captured one of them, but it was barely a drop in the bucket compared to the sheer numbers of what we were dealing with. Pikachu would run out of electricity long before we ran out of Beedrill to shock. We needed something just a little bit stronger.

"Gyarados, I choose you!" The giant blue Water Type crashed down onto the path, the dust rising up with his roar. Most Water Types without legs tend to struggle on land, but I'd seen enough people use them in battle against Dad to know Gyarados would be just fine. They might fly through the water like an arrow but they can slither across the ground like an Onix. "Alright, bring those Beedrill down with Aqua Tail!" He gave me a look like, seriously kid, you want me to obey you? Then four of them dive bombed him with their Twineedle attack and he seemed to decide it might be worth it.

With Gyarados and Pikachu fighting together, we made our way quickly through the town. By the time we circled back around to the Pokémon Center, most of the Beedrill were knocked out on the ground and the rest were winging away from us as fast as possible. Pikachu and I stood outside the building high-fiveing each other and generally being proud of ourselves while Gyarados gave a snort of annoyance and curled up into a ball to sleep. We had just calmed down and returned the grumpy Gyarados to his Pokeball when suddenly the highest pitched shriek the two of us had ever heard in our lives issued out of the Pokémon Center!

Misty's Memoirs

**A/N: Hi everybody! Emerald dragon decided to let me write part of his Fanfiction in Misty's point of view. Basically I am a close friend to emerald dragon, I am a girl so it makes sense for me to write Misty's part, I love Pokémon, and my Fanfiction name is thegame112233 but I don't have any stories yet, as a matter of fact, what I am writing right now is my first part of writing a story. Well that's enough about me, let's focus on Misty.**

I was so distracted until Pikachu burst into my room at the Pokémon center. I almost felt like Ash was going to lean in and kiss me. When Pikachu came in, I slumped back. I almost had my first kiss, but then Pikachu ruined it.

Ash picked up his friend and Pikachu started to frantically try to say something and he pointed outside. I looked out the window of my room and was engulfed by fear at the scene outside. There was Bug Pokémon everywhere! And they were all Beedrill! I tried to get Ash's attention, to get him to look outside, to get him to do something!

He raced over and looked outside and that's when I lost it. I started screaming at the top of my lungs. Ash and Pikachu tried to stop me, but when someone is deathly afraid of Bug Pokémon, you really can't stop them. Eventually Ash and Pikachu ran outside and began to battle them. I knew that if I were to go outside that I would be worse that useless, plus I had promised Ash and the doctors that I would stay in bed.

I sat on my bed watching Ash fight off the Beedrill, then running around the town fighting even more. I wished I could be that brave. Maybe if we started dating, he could teach me... Wait a second! I need to settle down. What was I thinking?! I haven't ever had these thoughts.

My thoughts were interrupted when a small swarm of Beedrill flew out of the forest. One of the smaller ones seemed to have troubles flying and crashed into the window. I screamed which was the most stupid mistake of my life, because Beedrill hate loud sounds. The whole swarm started to attack the window. Suddenly it shattered. That's when I yelled louder than I ever have before.

Before I could even grab a Pokeball, or do anything, one of the Beedrill attacked me with Twineedle. The pain was so unbearable I began screaming even louder. It had stung my arm at least four times before the rest joined in. All I could see was yellow and black and silver stingers. I tried kicking the Beedrill away, but it was useless, and the place where Gyarados had bit me began to ache. I was getting stung in so many places and it hurt so much. I thought there was no hope. This was torture and it seemed like it would never end. Then suddenly there was a bright flash and I caught a glimpse of Pikachu. The Beedrill stopped attacking me and rounded on Pikachu. A voice, which I assumed belonged to Ash, commanded, "Pikachu use Thunderbolt on every last one of them!" Well I don't quite know how strong a Pikachu is, but against so many Beedrill I didn't think it could stand a chance. But apparently Ash's Pikachu was super powerful; it was definitely stronger than I thought it was. All of a sudden the buzz of the Beedrill ceased. Ash said, "Great job Pikachu. That used a lot of your strength so I will go take you to the nurse." He turned to look at me. His face turned pale. He immediately ran out of the room yelling for the nurse.

A few seconds later they both came running back. The nurse said, "Hello, I am Nurse Grace. You have taken some severe damage from the Beedrill attacks. First I am going to clean the dried blood off. Then, I am going to put this cream on you and it should help the swelling go down in no time."

I faintly said "Okay."

She cleaned the dry blood off in no time. Then she applied the cream. The cream stung when she first put it on but all I could was whimper because my voice was hoarse from screaming. Suddenly, I felt something touch my hand. I looked up and saw Ash's hand on mine; his eyes filled with concern. He glanced at my eyes and gave a comforting smile. I tried to give a smile back, but it was a small one.

Again, for the second time, our gaze held. His brown eyes seemed to promise everything would be alright.

"Okay, Misty, the cream is all on and you should be back to normal in no time," the nurse said, interrupting us.

"Thank you so much, Nurse Grace." I whispered.

"You're welcome. Now I want you to get lots of rest. I would like you to take a nap right now," She said as she was leaving the room.

So that's what I did. Ash pulled up a chair and sat there with his hand still on mine, offering comfort. As I closed my eyes to go to sleep, I felt his thumb tracing random shapes. I was almost positive I felt a heart.

I had a nightmare that night. All I saw was Bug Pokémon attacking me. But this time, there was no one to save me. No matter how much I screamed no one could hear me.

I woke up suddenly and checked the time. It was two in the morning. Ash had fallen asleep in the chair. His hat had fallen on the floor, his head was resting on the edge of my bed, and his hand was still on top of mine. He looked so calm while he slept.

Pikachu was lying on the bed. I reached over and started gently rubbing the area between his ears, where I've come to learn all Pikachus enjoy. It startled Pikachu and he woke up. "Pika?" "Relax Pikachu it's just me, Misty. Go back to sleep." It didn't take much encouragement before Pikachu was back asleep.

Since I had gotten lots of rest today, I just stayed on my bed thinking about what has happened recently. I've been attacked by a Pokémon each day, for the past two days. I wonder which Pokémon will attack me today, I thought sarcastically.

I looked outside into the night sky. I could find all the constellations of all the water Pokémon on a clear night. Well, unfortunately for me, it was a cloudy night. I slowly drifted back to sleep.

When I woke up later, Ash and Pikachu were gone. I assumed they had either gone to eat breakfast, or went outside to train. Suddenly, I heard a buzzing outside. It was another Beedrill! I thought another swarm was attacking so naturally, I started to scream. I heard someone outside yell, "Come on Beedrill; let's go check on Misty." A few seconds later Ash, Beedrill, and Pikachu raced inside. Ash asked, "What's wrong Misty?" I could barely mutter. "Bu, bu, bu, bug. Get it away." The entire time I was shaking with fear and staring wide-eyed at the Beedrill. Ash sheepishly said, "Oh yeah. Beedrill return. I probably should have thought things through before I came inside. Sorry Misty."

I glared at him. "You caught a Bug type?"

Ash replied, "Yea. Why not?"

"Because I hate them," I responded.

"Just because you got attacked by a few yesterday doesn't mean you have to hate them all. My Gyarados bit you and you still like Water types."

"Ash, it's just I have never liked them. I got attacked as a little child and barely escaped with my life." I admitted.

He suddenly showed interest. "What happened?"

"Well when I was about three I decided to go exploring around in the forest. I ran into a Beedrill nest full of little Weedle. The mother Beedrill was just a little over protective. I ran home as fast as possible with the mom constantly stinging me. And then yesterday I got attacked by 20 of them. It's a great way to remind you of childhood memories you're trying to forget."

"That sounds horrible," he said.

His eyes were locked onto mine.

Thankfully, the next few days weren't nearly as full of excitement. When I wasn't talking to Misty I was training in the forest. During that time, I tried to figure out what had spooked those Beedrill and sent them attacking, but I never did. I was, however, able to capture a Spearow and a Tangela, which helped to round out my party quite nicely. But the entire time my thoughts became more and more focused on Misty. I didn't know whether I would be happy when we went our separate ways. Then came May 10th, when the doctor checked in on her to give her a clean bill of health.

We were both getting checked out of the Pokémon Center when Nurse Grace asked me where I was headed next. I told her that I had intended to go to Pewter City and challenge the Gym there, but there didn't seem to be a path.

"You won't find one Ash. There used to be a small winding trail up the side of the mountain that was used before the cable car was installed, but both have been taken out by all of the recent rock slides."

"Yeah, I've been wondering about that. Do you even know what is causing all of them?"

"No, it's a mystery. This part of the mountain always used to be pretty quiet until recently. We have sent a few teams up there to try and find that cause, but their explorations have turned out fruitless. Now those of us who haven't moved out just accept it as a part of life in this town."

"So there is no way up there?" I asked again for clarification.

"Not unless you know how to climb a mountain or have a Pokémon that can fly you up there."

"Okay thanks for the warning."

After that the three of us (Misty, Pikachu and myself) walked out of the Pokémon Center, Misty turned to me with a look of concern and interest on her face. "You're going to go up there anyway, aren't you?"

"Yeah. If I'm going to become a Pokémon Master, I can't back down from a simple challenge like climbing a mountain. And what about you? I assume you are going back to Cerulean City?"

She didn't respond immediately, and looked away like she was thinking about what to say next. "Actually I was wondering if maybe, if maybe I could… I was just thinking. It's just that I sort of wanted to…"

Suddenly I realized what she was trying to say. "Misty, would you like to join me on my journey?"

"You would let me?"

"Yeah, of course. I would hate to send you back to your boring life at the Gym, and what better way to get back on your feet that to go on a little rock climbing expedition? What do you think Pikachu? Can Misty come with us?"

"Pika Pikachupi!"

"Then it's settled. Welcome to the team Misty Waterflower."

We didn't go too far that day. We set up camp at the base of the first mountain around four 0'clock not wanting to risk going any farther and not being able to find a safe place to spend the night. It was a little awkward when we decided to turn in, because Misty was upset about me giving her my sleeping bag, but I noticed that after I had picked out a patch of ground to sleep on and clearly wasn't going to use the sleeping bag, she decided it wasn't worth wasting it.

**First off, let's give a big round of applause for thegame112233 and thank her for writing the female parts of the story, which I am not good at. And even though she chose a less than kindly name, let's not hold that against her, shall we?**

**There are a few things that probably need clearing up about this chapter. Yes, I know that in our world if you electrocute someone shortly after sustaining a serious injury you will likely kill them, but I'm making the assumption that those kinds of things don't matter in the Pokémon World. I also realize that Gyarados is basically being the Water Type version of Charizard to Ash. The only reason I decided to combine days this time is because four of the five days would have been boring with very little going on. **

**Until next time, Emerald Dragon out. **


	3. May 11

May 11

I woke up because a beam of sunlight, a beautiful beginning to the day, decided to stab me right through the eyelid, searing my retina and jarring me out of a sound sleep. I looked over and smiled when I saw Misty in my sleeping bag, both because she had decided to use and because she looked cute while she was sleeping. Not wanting to disturb her, I stretched the tightness out of my back from sleeping on the ground and woke Pikachu up so that we could do our early morning training out of Misty's earshot.

Since there wasn't much in the way of trees and bushes, we just had to make do by going to the next hill over and hope none of the various Pokémon attacks went too far off target. When I thought we were far enough away, I released all of my Pokémon and began rotating them through sparring pairs so each would get experience battling a variety of types. It wasn't until Misty spoke up that I realized we had been there for at least an hour, and that she probably had been watching me the whole time.

Misty's Memoires

I slept rather peacefully that night, but when I woke up, I was startled because I couldn't see anything. Then, I realized it was because Ash's hat was covering my face. As I took it off, I saw why. The light from the sun was blinding. It took me a few seconds to get used to the light, and when my eyes were finally adjusted to the blinding light, I noticed Ash was gone. Strange.

I was starting to wonder where he went, when I saw him on a hill, training. I could not see what Pokémon he was battling or which Pokémon he was using, so I decided to go find out for myself. I remembered that he had let me use his sleeping bag for the night. It was really comfortable too. I don't know why he would have given it up so just I could sleep on it while he had to sleep on the ground, but I definitely was going to thank him for it later.

I packed up my bag. I was trying to figure out how I would make Ash's sleeping bag fold up so I could carry it, when I saw a button that said "fold." Pretty self-explanatory. I pushed it and his sleeping bag folded up into the size of a book. Very convenient. I would need to ask him where he got it and go get one for myself.

I slung my backpack on my back and grabbed Ash's sleeping bag and held onto it. Now should I carry his hat or just wear it, I thought to myself. It would be much easier to just wear it. I flattened my Ponytatail and placed his hat on my head. I hoped he wouldn't mind. I did one last look around to make sure we didn't forget anything, and then I headed off to see what Pokémon Ash was battling.

As I climbed towards the top of the hill (which felt like a mountain to me) Ash was on, I saw he was fighting in an open field. He appeared to be battling a wild Sandshrew, but I still could not see what Pokémon Ash was using because there was a lot of trees and other vegetation blocking me from seeing the battlefield. I finally figured it out when Ash gave his attack command. "Tangela use Mega Drain!" What?! Since when did this boy catch a Tangela? He didn't use it to fight the Beedrill so he must have caught one when I was at the Pokémon Center. I crept closer to the battlefield to see how the battle was going. Tangela's attack hit its mark. Next, Sandshrew retaliated with a Scratch attack. "Tangela, dodge it!" Ash commanded. Back and forth the battle went, neither Pokémon gaining an advantage over the other. Sandshrew would use Fury Swipe, Tangela would dodge it. Tangela would use Vine Whip, Sandshrew would dodge it. Finally, Ash had enough. "Tangela, use Poison Powder and after that use Sleep Powder!" He commanded. Sandshrew was able to dodge away from the Poison Powder, but flew right into the Sleep Powder.

I came out, into the clearing saying, "Sandshrew is unable to battle. Tangela is the winner. The victory goes to Ash." Ash turned and smiled at me. Then he asked, "How long have you been standing over there?" "Since you had Tangela use Mega Drain." I replied. "Oh, here's your hat and sleeping bag. Thanks for letting me sleep in your sleeping bag, and thanks for putting your hat over my face to block the sunlight," I said Mareepishly while handing him his stuff back. "No problem," he replied, while putting his sleeping bag back into his backpack and putting his hat on his head.

"So how long have you had a Tangela, and where is Pikachu?" I asked him. "Oh yea, you haven't met my new Pokémon. Well this is Tangela, and I also caught a Spearow while you were recovering in the Pokémon center. Pikachu is out, running around, trying to find wild Pokémon and bring them here while I battle them. I suppose if you're up, then we can start walking towards Pewter City. Tangela, return!"

"What about Pikachu? When is he going to return?" I asked.

"I sent him to go find Pokémon in that direction, which is conveniently the path to Pewter City. We should run into him somewhere on the way." He said, pointing in the direction of a mountain.

We began walking down the hill and into another open field. To our left was a rather large hill and to our right was an empty pasture. "Hey look!" Ash said, "There's Pikachu on top of that hill. Hey Pikachu! Over here!" Ash yelled while starting to wave his arms frantically around.

"Pika Pika!" Said Pikachu running over. Pikachu covered the distance in no time and gave his master a big hug.

"You did a great job buddy. I'm so proud of you. Well now, we're off to Pewter City," Ash told him.

I looked over towards the hill where Pikachu had come from, and I saw a cloud of dust beginning to rise up into the air, and out of the cloud charged a herd of Rhyhorns! "Uh, Ash, we might want to RUN!" I said, motioning towards the stampede of Rhyhorns. "Quick, towards the cover of the woods over towards that mountain!" I said, pointing in the direction towards Pewter City while sprinting towards it.

We made it safely into the cover of the forest. "I wonder what made them cause a stampede." I stated.

"Well I am not sticking around to find out." Ash said.

We continued heading towards the mountain, going through the woods. We came into an opening in the valley, where there was an Onix lying around. "Alright! Go Gyarados! Use Aqua Tail on that Onix!" Ash said, calling out his Gyarados.

"Ash, I hope you know what you're doing." I said, cautiously backing away. He couldn't blame me for backing away, I mean, this is the same Gyarados that attacked me last week.

Well, that Aqua Tail hit the Onix and woke him up, and Onix didn't seem to like being woken up. "Ash! It's getting ready to use an Iron Tail attack!" I yelled out to him.

"Thanks Misty. Gyarados, dodge it!" He ordered. The Onix's attack missed. "Gyarados, use Dragon Rage!" Ash commanded. Suddenly, the Onix disappeared. "Where did it go?" Ash asked, looking confused.

"Ash, I think it used Dig. Be careful. It could pop up at any time. Ah!" I screamed as it resurfaced five feet away from me. I quickly ran out of the way.

"Gyarados, attack now!" Ash said. It knocked out the Onix almost immediately.

We continued walking towards the mountain. We walked through a forest, and saw many different wild Pokémon. Then we came upon a small pond. "Hey, Ash, let's stop and eat brunch here," I said.

"Yes! Food!" Ash exclaimed. I laughed and got out some sandwiches from my bag. I also got Pikachu some spare Pokémon food I had in my bag. "Thanks Misty," Ash said as he started to take a bite of his sandwich. Before it even got to his mouth, a burst of water shot directly at us. "Ack!" Ash yelled.

"Oh my gosh! There must be Water Pokémon in this pond! I'm going to catch one!" I said, reaching in my bag and grabbing an empty Pokéball. A Poliwag jumped out of the pond. "Oh my gosh! It's so adorable! Go Pokéball!" I yelled, tossing the Pokéball at it.

The Poliwag blocked the Pokéball, and Ash laughed and said, "Are you sure you're the daughter of a gym leader? You don't even know how to catch a Pokémon."

"I've never caught one before so stop distracting me." I said as I threw the Pokéball at the Poliwag again. The Poliwag blocked it again.

"Misty, you need to weaken the Poliwag first. Choose one of your Pokémon and start battling it." He explained.

"Fine. Go Staryu!" I said, grabbing the Pokéball off my belt and unleashing Staryu. "Staryu, use Rapid Spin! Then Water Gun! Now Tackle!" I commanded. "Now go Pokéball!" I said throwing the Pokéball a third time. This time, I caught it. "Yes! I caught Poliwag!" I cheered, striking a pose.

"Great job, Misty. Now can I have a sandwich?" Ash asked. I threw him another sandwich with as much force as possible, both of us laughing the entire time.

As we ate the sandwiches we started talking about our plan for the trip. "I am planning on going to Pewter City and beating the Gym Leader. Then I don't know which gym I should defeat next," Ash explained.

"Well, I probably need to let my mom know that I am planning on going on a Pokémon journey. Perhaps we could swing by Cerulean City after this. Of course, if you want to win a gym match, you shouldn't go there," I suggested.

"That sounds like a good plan. Sound alright with you, Pikachu?" Ash asked.

"Pika Pika Chu Pika!" Pikachu responded.

"So Misty..." Ash began.

"Yes?" I asked.

"Are you feeling better? Does the Gyarados bite still hurt? I feel so bad that my Gyarados bit you. I am so sorry."

"I am feeling much better. The bite only hurts when I stretch or reach up to grab something. Don't make yourself feel bad about what your Gyarados did. You probably just don't have enough badges for it to respect you," I said, gently placing my hand on his to reassure him that it was alright. After a few minutes of just sitting there, he got up abruptly.

"We had better get moving if we want to make it to Pewter City before dinner," he explained. He reached his hand down to help me up. I grabbed onto it and then he pulled me up with ease. I packed my bag and then we continued our journey.

We kept on heading towards the mountain. Once we got to the base of the mountain we saw a cave. "I wonder if that cave goes through the mountain," I said. "There's only one way to find out," Ash said and he started to enter the cave, Pikachu following closely behind.

We had easily navigated our through about half of the tunnel and were in a more open section when some of the rocks and boulders we had passed turned out to be about 20 Geodudes, Gravelers, and a few Golems. "Go Staryu and Poliwag. Ash, these Pokémon are really weak against water and grass attacks," I said, "Staryu, use water gun! Poliwag, use bubble beam!"

Ash said, "You're right Misty. Go Gyarados and Tangela. Gyarados use aqua tail and Tangela use mega drain." Our combined efforts easily knocked out every last Pokémon. "Great job Staryu and Poliwag. Return," I said. Ash also returned his Pokémon after congratulating them.

Suddenly, a cry from nearby in the cave caught our attention. It wasn't the cry of a human, it sounded like the cry of a Pokémon. Then the cry turned into a Screech attack. Ash and Pikachu covered their ears and collapsed to the ground because of the unbearably high pitch. I went to go find the source of the sound.

It didn't take me long to find that the source of the sound was a baby Larvitar. It looked like it had been abandoned. I picked it up and started trying to comfort it. It stopped screeching. Apparently Ash and Pikachu didn't realize that I left them because I heard Ash say, "Oh no! Where's Misty?" Then Pikachu started yelling, "Pika!" While Ash yelled, "Misty!" All the yelling started to make the Larvitar screech again. I quickly began trying to comfort it again, and it stopped. Ash, once again yelled, "Misty! Where are you?!"

I replied, "I am over here. You'll never believe what I found." He raced over quickly and saw me holding the baby Larvitar.

"So that's what was screeching. It looks too young to catch so how about we take it with us," he suggested.

"Really Ash? That's great!" I exclaimed.

We continued through the cave. I carried the baby Larvitar and it seemed to like that. Suddenly a wild Zubat flew into the cave and began dive bombing Larvitar and I. "Pikachu, Thundershock that Zubat!" Ash commanded. Well, that got to Zubat's attention.

"Ash! It looks like it's about to use supersonic!" I warned, but it was too late.

"Pikachu! Use Thundershock again!" Ash said, apparently not aware of side effects of supersonic. Pikachu's attack hit Ash instead of Zubat.

"Ash, supersonic can cause a Pokémon to become confused. Best to switch Pokémon," I suggested.

"Alright. Let's take this battle to the skies, or, as much sky as there is in a cave. Go Spearow!" Ash said as he sent out his new Spearow. "Spearow, use peck!" Ash commanded. Long story short, Spearow won the battle against Zubat. "Great job Spearow. Now return!"

"Hey Ash look! There is light at the end of that tunnel! It might be our way out!" We took off running down the tunnel when I tripped on a rock. "Geo!" The rock said. Wait, rocks don't talk! It was a Geodude! Ash started to say, "Go Tang..." "Ash, I want to battle the Geodude!" I exclaimed, "Go Poliwag!" "Fine," Ash mumbled, as he held Larvitar for me. "Poliwag, it's about to use tackle. Dodge it!" I commanded, watching the Geodude's movements. "Now use bubble beam!" I exclaimed, when there was an opening. That one water attack was powerful enough to knock out the Geodude. "Way to go Poliwag! Great job! You deserve a rest. Return!" I cheered Poliwag.

"Good job Misty. Here's Larvitar," Ash said, handing me Larvitar in the process.

After that, we ran out of the tunnel and into the wonderful sunlight. And on top of that, the tunnel must have been a short cut, because we were right on the outskirts of Pewter City!

Pewter "City". My first stop on the way to the Pokémon League probably contained a whopping 100 people, and the entire city could fit into a couple of blocks of Viridian City. They didn't have much space to expand in, but they didn't have built in such an inconvenient location. The city was built on an oval shaped plateau maybe a mile across at the widest point, but only a quarter of a mile across where we were, which was surrounded completely by mountains that towered hundreds of feet over it, except a few strides east where the plateau just dropped off suddenly. I had a feeling that the road down to Stone Town used to be there before all of these rockslides, because the main (and only) road came right up to the edge and just stopped.

Most of the city was occupied by a massive building up at the top of the plateau as far from the edge as possible. The main road was actually a straight line from that building to the edge of the cliff with the rest of the city being a handful of homes scattered up and down it.

I was just turning to ask Misty what she thought we should do, when Larvitar gave a sharp cry all of a sudden and took off in the direction of that main building. Misty and I exchanged a quick glance before we took off after the little guy.

As we ran through the city, ducking around houses and jumping over random discarded objects in people's yards, I remember thinking that it was awfully strange that nobody seemed to be around. Later I would learn where they all were, and why, but at the time seemed really wierd.

When we reached the main road, having almost completely caught up to the running Larvitar, I noticed that there was a guy standing outside the entrance to the big building. He had been leaning against the wall, almost like he was resting, but us calling out to Larvitar to come back must have woken him up because he started walking in our direction. When Larvitar saw this, he started running even faster, and jumped into the guys waiting arms while we were still twenty feet away, so we slowed down and pulled up about five feet short of running into him.

"Who are you people," the guy asked, "and why did you have Larvitar?"

He was as tall as me, and pretty close to my age, but he seemed older for some reason, as if he was carrying a lot more on his shoulders that Misty or I. But aside from that, he gave off a good, older brother kind of vibe, which kind of made you let your guard down around him and think everything was alright.

"My name is Ash Ketchum, my friend Misty Waterflower, and my partner Pikachu." I reached out for a hand shake, and as he did so, shifting Larvitar over to one arm, he laughed out loud. "Umm, what's so funny?" I asked him after we dropped hands.

"It's just that, Ketchum is the family that runs the Viridian City Gym, and the Waterflowers run the Cerulean City Gym."

"And, so? Do you have a problem with that?" snapped Misty.

"No, no problem. My name is Brock Flint, and my family runs the Pewter City Gym.

An hour later and Brock was leading us to the kitchen of the big building, having returned Larvitar to its Pokeball. He also told how the building's actual name was the Kanto Fossil Research Lab, and a little bit of the local history. One of Brock's ancestors had moved into this area with a party of fossil hunters because there was rumored to be a large quantity of them in this region. Of course, this was back before standard gyms were up and running. Over time, a small town grew up here, centered around the research being done on the fossils, and eventually they were able to turn the fossils back into Pokémon. After this, Brock's ancestor began training these fossil Pokémon, as well as other local Pokémon, and when formal gyms were introduced several generations latter, Brock's family was immediately accepted into the league. The actual Gym was in an underground area beneath the research facility.

Although Brock had told us that it was important that we get to the kitchen quickly, so we couldn't get the full tour now, he wouldn't tell us why, and he didn't seem particularly concerned that scientist kept coming up to us and complaining how this Pokémon wasn't eating or that machine wasn't working right, and they always asked him why there were two strange kids in here, to which he always replied, "They are a Ketchum and a Waterflower."

Finally, after back tracking several times to fix various problems and probably seeing almost as much of the Gym as we would have if we had gotten the tour, we stopped at a pair of double doors where Brock announced we had reached the kitchen, which was a good thing because brunch seemed a far off dream by now.

The moment Brock opened the door, we were overcome by a swarm of little kids, and I immediately noticed that they all had Brock's narrow, squinty eyes, and they were all pulling him over to a little girl crying at the table in the center of the room. As soon as Brock noticed her, he ran over; after handing Larvitar's Pokeball over to a brother, he sat down and began to comfort her.

"Suzie, what's wrong?" The little girl, Suzie, threw her arms around Brock and began crying uncontrollably. Brock patted her on the back and hugged her, trying to calm her down while Misty and I looked on, myself uncomfortable because, being an only child, I have never had to deal with little kids before, and Misty torn between not wanting to intrude and wanting to help comfort Suzie. Fortunately, we were saved from that embarrassing family situation, by the brother with the Pokeball who looked exactly like Brock, although this one was only a year or two younger than us.

"Here, come with me," the kid said as he walked up to us from inside the kitchen. "Don't worry, Brock knows how to deal with us, but it may take a while, so I'll give you the grand tour." The kid wasn't much shorter than me or Brock, right around Misty's height, and I noticed that he was wearing a green collared shirt and khaki pants identical to his older brother. I took one last look at Brock and Suzy, and then decided that even if I had seen most of the research center, it was still the better option.

"Come on Misty," I motioned for her follow us. She hesitated for a minute, so the kid and I started walking, but before we had gotten too far down the hall she was running to catch up.

"Hey, wait for me guys!"

"Nice of you to join us. Misty, right?" The kid shook her hand, then turned to me. "And you are Ash, correct?"

"Umm, yeah," I responded. "But how do you know that?"

"I heard it down the nerd-vine."

"The nerd-vine?!" Misty and I both asked, surprised.

The kid laughed and replied, "Yeah, pretty much everyone here is involved in some way with the Pokémon research. Since they are all nerdy scientists, my brothers and I call them the nerd-vine. Brock told one white-coated weirdo who you were, then that one told another and the second told a third, until eventually one of them told me. I have no idea which one though, because they all start to blur together after a while. Oh, my name is Forrest by the way."

"Nice to meet you Forest."

"So I'm assuming you guys are Pokémon trainers, here for a Gym battle, right?"

"Well, yes, but how did you know?"

"Easy, people only come all the way up here to Pewter for three reasons. The scientists who join our team periodically all have the same kind of vibe going on, and they usually fly in by helicopter. Occasionally tourists, usually couples, come up here for the scenic view of the mountains, but with the road destroyed by all of these rock slides, that seems really unlikely. The last option is Pokémon trainers, who are the only ones dedicated enough to come up here, and they have the Pokémon with them that can allow them to actually get here. So has Brock already showed you around?"

"Just a little bit, he showed us some of the labs and stuff, but none of them seemed particularly interesting. Mostly it was us getting side tracked by scientists needing his help and he didn't really explain what all was going on."

"If that's all you've seen then you've missed the best part. Come on, follow me!" Forest took off down the hallway and we had to run to keep up.

Forest lead us through several different open corridors, past dozens of scientists who, if they were even looking up from their work at all, got whiplash as we went by, and into a massive open area near the center of the building. The place was basically like a giant Pokémon habitat. The carpeting felt like real grass underfoot, light and springy, with random rock formations sticking up in the air. At the center was a little artificial pond, and in the middle of the domed ceiling was a super intense light, probably intended to act like the sun. But that wasn't the most interesting part. The most interesting part was all of the Rock Pokémon!

A couple of Omanyte were playing in the water. An Onix was snoozing, peacefully curled around one of the large rock formations while a bunch of Geodude were playing together on its back. Another Geodude didn't seem to mind the fact that it was being used as a ball by a trio of Rhydon, which gave me a touch of homesickness when I thought about Dad's. The most intimidating Pokémon there was an Aerodactyl perched on the tallest rock, giving the impression of a master predator surveying its territory. And right in front of us a pair of Aron were practicing Headbutt on each other. Forrest released Larvitar, and he ran off to join in with Aron.

"So I'm assuming that this is a Rock Type Gym, right?"

"Yep all of these Pokémon are either the Gym's, or the fossil Pokémon resurrected in the lab." My mind immediately began formulating strategies of how best to gain this Gym's badge, but my thoughts were interrupted by Misty's question.

"Forest, I'm a little confused. What exactly are fossil Pokémon?"

"Wait, you don't know?" Now I know fossil Pokémon were becoming more commonly used by Pokémon trainers, but they were still rare enough that I could understand Misty not knowing. But the way Forest asked that made it seem like he thought she was a pretty stupid for not knowing. He seemed to realize this, because he was quick to apologize. "I'm sorry Misty; I didn't mean to insult you or anything. It's just that everyone else here knows what fossil Pokémon are, so I'm not used to having to explain to other people.

"To really explain what fossil Pokémon are, you need to know a little of the backstory. So I assume you know how my great-great-grandfather established this facility here because there were a large number of fossils in this area, right? Well, because of his research we were able to find a lot out about them. Of, course these findings were aided when we were able to recreate some of them from the DNA we found inside those fossils.

"All of the Pokémon that have been turned into fossils are Rock Type, which leads us to two different conclusions. Either only Rock Type Pokémon can fossilize, or when these Pokémon fossilized, their DNA was mutated some way so that they became Rock Types. The scientists here seem to think that the second one is true, because sometimes even when we find a complete DNA code that looks like we should be able to synthesize a Pokémon from it, the actual creation process fails horribly.

"Another cool thing about fossil Pokémon that you might like Misty, is that almost all of the Pokémon that have been created from these fossils are either also part Water Type, or if they aren't Water Type, they still seem to really enjoy and thrive in the water. Follow me."

Forest took us right up to the edge of the pond. As we passed, each of the Rock Type Pokémon would stop what they were doing, with the exception of Onix, and stare at us for a few seconds, then go back to whatever they were doing before. I could understand why they were staring at us, since they probably didn't see strangers too often except during Gym Battles, but that didn't make it any less awkward.

Instead of a basic swimming pool, which was what I was expecting, the bottom of the pond was completely covered in what looked sort of like Venus flytraps. There were a couple Pokémon I didn't recognize crawling around amongst the plants, but both of them bared a striking resemblance to other…

"Bugs!" Misty's shrieked, startling all of the Pokémon. "Bugs!" she screamed again, throwing her arms up in the air and taking off in the direction of the door. Hurling my backpack at Forest so I wouldn't have it weighing me down, I took off running after Misty.

It's a good thing Misty didn't know the layout of the research lab very well, because I didn't either. But even if she knew how to navigate through here, I would still be able to find her. That high-pitched shriek is very distinctive.

Following the screams, and the trail of knocked over and perturbed scientists, I caught up to Misty outside the cafeteria and was able to cut in front of her, almost causing her to run into me. "Whoa girl! What's your rush? You might hurt someone. Didn't your mother ever teach you not to run inside?"

The look of sheer terror on her face gradually faded as her bug-induced panic gave way to annoyance at my sarcastic comments. "Ash, you can be the most annoying person in the world, you know that right?" I made a mock bow with wide outward sweeping movements of my arms like a magician getting acknowledged for his skill. She looked like she was readying another insult, but whatever it was died on her lips when she looked over my shoulder. Following her gaze, I turned around, only to come face to face with the weirdest person I had ever seen before in my life.

Now granted, I had never spent a lot of time around scientists before today, and the multitude that I had seen in just a few short hours had really been an eye opener into how weird people could be, but this guy took the cake. He was a good foot taller than me, wearing a long white lab coat that was only buttoned at the top, allowing it to billow out behind him almost like a cape. Underneath he was wearing black pants, black boots, and something that looked like a black vest, but with weird blue stripes crisscrossing it, but most of it was covered by the coat. The weirdest part, however, was his hair.

For the most part, his short, blonde, very tight-to-the-skull hairstyle seemed fairly normal. But then sticking out of the left side of his forehead was this completely random spike of blue hair that curved up and over the left side of his head, around the back, and then ended about at the right side of his neck. I didn't even want to think about how much hair gel that guy had to put in to keep it up like that, and it didn't seem to be worth it, but who was I to judge?

Equally weird and much more disturbing than the guy's hair style was the fact that from behind his glasses gleamed the craziest pair of eyes I had ever, um, laid eyes on. "Children," he said to us in a low, cool voice, "mightn't you point me in the direction of the master of this facility?"

"Mister," I retorted in my most sneering imitation of his voice, "Mightn't you tell us who the heck you are first, before we go directing you around this building?" Usually I wasn't so forwardly out and out mean to adults, but there was something about this guy that gave me the creeps.

"My name is Colress. I am a representative from Plasma Tech. Does that satisfy your curiosity boy?"

Brock opening the door to the kitchen and stepping out into the hallway cut off the sarcastic comment I was about to make. "Ah, the representative from Plasma Tech. You are here for the Anorith, right? Just follow me." Brock started leading this Colress guy back in the direction we had come from, but turned back towards us before he had gone too far. "Hey you guys there's some food in the kitchen if you want a sort of lunch, dinner snack thing. This shouldn't take too long so make yourselves at home."

I was a little startled by this sudden show of generosity, but I managed to call out thanks before he went much farther. Brock just waved at me in an off-handed way as if to say it wasn't a big deal.

I spent the next ten minutes stuffing myself with cheese, crackers and other snack items while Misty hung out with Brock's siblings. Now, it's not that I wanted to ignore them, the few instances that I have had interactions with little kids, like my cousins, having been pretty fun, but when there is food to be eaten what else really matters? When Brock returned, about the time I was opening the second box of cookies, Forest was following behind him, carrying both my bag and Pikachu.

"Hey bubby, sorry about that. I didn't mean to leave you behind like that. I had to go after Misty, so…" I didn't have to finish because Pikachu had already jumped over into my arms and rubbed his nose against my face, letting me know all was forgiven. "Thanks Pikachu."

That problem solved, I turned my attention back to Forest and Brock, who apparently were continuing whatever argument they had started out in the hallway. "Look Forest, I can understand why you might feel uncomfortable just giving away valuable fossil Pokémon like that, but Plasma Tech is a real business that has been doing legitimate work with other fossil Pokémon over in the Unova region. There is no reason to assume that they have malicious intentions."

"I know Brock, but…"

"Forest, drop it. I've already given him the Anorith, and even if I thought that he was evil or something, what am I supposed to do? Go running after his helicopter and tell him to give it back?" Forest looked like he wanted to answer, but Brock was already walking away. He stopped halfway between me and Misty, looked at her, and must have decided that it was okay to leave his siblings in her care for a while longer because he nodded once before continuing in my direction, but he stopped a second time when he saw the massive pile of discarded food wrappers I had left behind me.

"I get the feeling that you were just the slightest bit hungry."

I looked at the mess that I made, and the food that I had piled up on my plate to eat next, before smiling back at him. "You know, I was a little hungry, but I think it's gone now."

"Yeah, along with the rest of our food." I hung my head in shame while Pikachu silently patted me on the back. "Hey Ash, it's no big deal. We have plenty of extra food. I mean with, hold on, how many siblings do I have again?" He did a mock count of the other people in the room. "Ten. That's weird, I could have sworn there were only nine yesterday. What happened?" I just laughed at him and pointed at Misty. Brock mock face-palmed himself then said, "Well that's good. I thought I was going crazy or something."

I shook my head, still laughing. I was beginning to like this guy. With his calm, easy going nature, he was sort of like the older brother I never had. "So, are you the actual Gym Leader here Brock, or what."

His laughing expression transformed into worry in no time flat. "No, I'm not supposed to be the Gym Leader here, my dad is. But that's the problem. Two weeks ago he went out with a small team to try and find the source of all of these rock slides, and he hasn't been seen since."

"I'm sorry Brock. Do you know anything about what happened?"

"No, nothing. Two weeks ago he decided he was tired of all of these rock slides barreling down past out town, so he grabbed his Pokeballs and went out to find what was going on."

"So all these rock slides, they aren't normal?"

"No, of course not. It would be kind of stupid to build a town in an unstable area like that." Brock sort of went quiet for a minute before he spoke again. "I really hope that Dad is okay. I'm not prepared to run this place by myself. All of these people depending on me, I can barely take care of my siblings, let alone deal with all of the problems we have here." All of a sudden he started breathing really heavy, like he was hyperventilating or something. Some sixth sense told me that Brock was barely holding himself together, and if anything else went wrong he would just break mentally.

One part of me just wanted to get my gym badge and head out; leave Brock to his own problems and be on my way. But my parents had taught me better than that. I walked over to Brock's younger brother. "Forest, give me my bag." He looked at me kind of funny before handing it over.

"What's up Ash?" Misty asked, stepping away from the kids and towards me.

"Brock needs our help. He needs to find his father and the cause of these rock slides, and we are going to help him. It would just seem tacky to beat the poor guy in a Gym Battle and leave him here to take care of this place by himself. I mean, if I'm going to destroy him in a battle, the least we could do is help him deal with his problems."

I walked over to the door and motioned for Misty to follow, but just as she started Bock spoke up. "Whoa! Whoa, no guys. You can't do that. We can't just go traipsing up and down these mountains. They are dangerous."

I just grinned at Misty. "I guess we will be looking for Brock's dad while he stays here with the kids. Ready for an adventure Pikachu?"

"Pika! Pikachupi!"

"Misty?"

"Yeah," she grinned, "sounds like fun."

"Guys. Guys!" Brock yelled at the three of us as we made our way down the hallway. I fixed my backpack on my back, then I started fake marching just to be annoying. Brock hung around for about a minute, standing in the doorway looking back and forth between us and the gathering of siblings inside the kitchen. Finally he threw up his hands in disgust and jogged after us. "Hey! Wait for me guys!"

I turned in mid-step and continued walking backwards. "Decided to come after all?"

"Well if you are going to go stomping through the mountains, you had better have someone with you that knows the terrain."

I smiled at Brock and then shook his hand. "Good to have you on the team."

Misty's Memoirs

I was searching around the mountain looking for clues, since Brock said that these rock slides were probably not natural, so I was looking for things like Pokémon or human footprints. I had been looking around for a while and had found nothing, and was starting to get bored when all of a sudden; little rocks began tumbling down past me.

I wasn't certain what to do because I was pretty sure this was another rock slide just beginning, when Brock yelled out to us. "Guys! Get back to Pewter!"

All of a sudden I realized that his voice was coming from the other side of the mountain. I guess I wasn't aware of how far I had travelled. "Wait for me guys," I yelled back to them. I took off back towards Pewter City.

I didn't make it far before I heard a random, little kid giggle and saw a yellow dress. Wait a second, this wasn't just any random little kid, this was Suzie, Brock's little sister! I immediately ran up to her. "Suzie! What are you doing here? You're supposed to be back in Pewter City, where it is safe."

"I wanted to play detective too!" She said, putting pride into the words The pebbles were falling faster and faster, and were beginning to be mixed with larger rocks. I quickly analyzed the situation. Pewter City was too far away with a little girl in tow. I spotted a cave about 20 yards away.

"Hey Suzie!" I said, getting the girl's attention. "Let's go look for clues in that cave over there!" I said, trying to sound as enthusiastic as you can while trying to get a little girl to quickly get out of danger. I grabbed her hand and we started running towards the cave.

We made it safely, although Suzie wanted to look at the view from the mouth of the cave. I decided to let her look while I checked out the cave. It wasn't a very large cave, and it didn't have any tunnels or paths leading out of it. "Hey Suzie, how about you come look for clues over here with me," I suggested, suddenly deciding it would probably be safer for her away from the falling rocks. She skipped over and then sat by me. I started to hear loud rumbling from outside the cave. I didn't want Suzie to freak out, so I needed to distract her as soon and for as long as possible. "Hey Suzie, you see this line? What do you think it means?" I asked her.

"I think it's a secret treasure map. It must lead to a huge treasure chest!" She informed me confidently.

"You think so? Well I have paper maybe you could copy it for Brock and show him later," I said, grabbing paper from my bag and handing it to her.

"You're silly," she said.

"Why?" I asked.

"I need a pencil too," she stated.

"Oh, of course. How could I forget? I guess, I am silly," I laughed, while handing her a pencil.

She turned around and started drawing the "treasure map" on the wall. I watched outside the cave. Rocks slowly started to pile up against the entrance. Under normal circumstances, I would have started to push them away, but if I did that now, I'm sure Suzie would want to help. I would hate for her to get injured by helping me. So, I decided I would sit down a few feet away from the entrance of the cave.

Suddenly, a huge boulder fell and blocked all of the cave entrance except the top. "Are we trapped?!" Suzie shrieked, turning around and just beginning to freak out.

"Of course not. I'll just push this boulder away," I said, trying to reassure her while doubting my own strength. I walked towards the boulder, which was about a foot taller than me. I started to push it. Then harder. Then with all of my might.

Nothing. More boulders fell on top of it, until the sunlight was completely blocked off and it was pitch black in the cave. Suzie sniffled. "It's dark in here," she whined. I rummaged around in the cave until I found my backpack and grabbed my flashlight out of it. I turned it on and checked on Suzie.

"See? Everything's alright," I said giving Suzie a reassuring smile. I sat next to her and started rubbing her back. Suzie rolled into a ball and began to sniffle.

"Hey, Suzie look at me. Everything will be alright. I have food in my bag and soon we will get out of here. Don't worry. You're with the daughter of a gym leader, and two other gym leaders' sons are on their way to find you." I reassured her. Actually, I didn't know whether Ash and Brock were on their way to find us. Besides, they probably didn't know Suzie was out of town too. I just hoped that Ash realized that I was gone. Then again, Ash has rescued me countless times already, so it's probably safe to assume he would rescue me now too. This whole damsel in distress thing was getting kinda annoying; although, I am glad I am being rescued by a guy as nice as Ash. I wonder if he will ask me out sometime...

"Misty?" Suzie asked, interrupting my thoughts.

"Yes Suzie?"

"How do you know Ash and Brock are on their way to find us?" She asked innocently. That was an excellent question that I did not know the answer to.

"Honestly Suzie, I really don't know. You just have to have faith in your friends and believe that they will prevail. If you believe enough, they eventually will." I summarized.

"But Misty, they don't even know I left." She pointed out. This girl was really good at pointing out uncomfortable truths.

"Suzie, I am sure when Brock goes back to Pewter City he will realize you're not there and send out a search party. You have nothing to worry about." I told her. But if Suzie had nothing to worry about, did I have no worries too? Maybe Ash and Brock thought I made it to Pewter City safely and they just couldn't find me anywhere. Or maybe they thought I was still on my way. And what if they didn't realize Suzie was missing. We could be trapped here for days.

Seeing as the only thing I could do in that cave was sit around and think, I started to think about how great my life was, you know, putting a positive spin on things to keep me from sinking into misery. I've always loved water Pokémon all of my life. My mom had taught me how to swim. I remember every day after I learned how to swim; I wanted to be in the pool. My mom always said I could swim as long as her or my dad was around, but one night I decided to swim and probably would have drowned then and there if our family Seel hadn't saved me.

Our Seel and I had developed an extremely tight bond after that. Seel would always swim when I was in the water. My mom would always have me run errands and then afterwards I would always hang out with Seel. When my mom let me go off and roam on my own for a month she said I could not take Seel with me. I started to cry and simply ran out of the city. After a while of exploring the woods, I stopped crying and spotted a lake. That's when I first met Ash...

All these thoughts of Seel and Ash swirled through my head. It didn't occur to me until now that I might not see them again. I had rarely gotten to know my dad because he was constantly busy somewhere else. I had spent an entire childhood with a Pokémon that I might never see again. And now, I thought I had met a wonderful teenage boy that had already saved my life a few times and I might never see him again or thank him. My vision started to blur. I might never see my parents again. I might never see Ash again. I might never see the water Pokémon that saved my life...

Wait a second! I had a few water Pokémon with me! While Staryu's and Poliwag's combined efforts might not move the giant boulder, they might be able to move some of the smaller ones and let some light in here. "Suzie, I have an idea." I told her as I stood up. "Go Poliwag and Staryu!" I said. "I need both of you to aim at the smaller stones around that big boulder. Staryu use your water gun. Poliwag use your hydro pump. Attack!" I yelled and the wonderful water Pokémon started their attack against the wall of stones separating us from the outside world.

Staryu's water gun attack and Poliwag' hydro pump knocked some small stones away. It was super effective for my plan. It allowed oxygen to get in, and our shouts to get out. "Now Suzie, this is a team effort. I need you to yell for Brock. Poliwag and Staryu, I need you both to choose a small opening and make a water fountain out of it. Ready? Go!" I shouted orders, and then we all shouted together.

After about five minutes, I heard Brock yell, "Ash! I found them!" I heard footsteps rushing towards us. "Suzie! Are you okay?" Brock asked.

"Yes I am thanks to Misty," she responded.

"Misty! Are you alright?!" Ash asked.

"Yes I am just fine. Although we need to move this giant boulder to get out," I stated. "Way to go Poliwag and Staryu. Return," I said putting the Pokéballs back in my bag.

"I have an idea that might just move this boulder. I need everyone's help. Go Geodude and Onix!" Brock said. "Okay, Misty and Suzie, if you're facing the boulder, I am going to need you to push it towards your right. Ash, Geodude, Onix, we're pushing it towards our left. Ready? Let's go!" We all pushed together, but I think Onix deserves most of the credit for getting us out.

There were hugs all around. Suzie gave Brock a hug and later Forrest too. Brock ran up and gave me a hug, which was a little weird and by a little weird, I mean really weird. "Thank you for saving Suzie," Brock said. He held the hug a little too long, which put me out of my comfort zone. In contrast to Brock's hug, Ash's was more relaxing and enjoyable and I would defiantly have been fine with it lasting a little longer.

After rescuing Misty and Suzie, and suffering through the annoying and overly intimate hug fest that followed, especially from Brock and Suzie, we all headed back to Pewter while promising ourselves that we would be back tomorrow to search again. When we arrived, Forrest came running up to us freaking out about how he couldn't find Suzie anywhere, and seamed especially pleased to find that she was just fine. Brock whipped us up and meal, which was delicious, but for some reason no one seemed to enjoy it nearly as much as me. In fact, when I looked up from my third heaping plateful I noticed that everyone was looking at me really weird. "What's up guys?"

"Oh nothing Ash," Misty replied. "We were just wondering if you could possible eat faster if we gave you a shovel instead of just a fork and spoon."

I just stared at them. "What in the world are you guys talking about?"

Misty let out an exasperated sigh but then waved me off. "Never mind Ash. Just go back to your food." I chose to just forget about it and instead, graciously allowed myself to obey her orders.

When the meal was over (fortunately there weren't and leftovers to put away) all of us, Brock, his nine siblings, Misty and myself, as well as a little help from Pikachu and Larvitar, cleared and washed the dishes. With so many hands helping, it went fairly quickly and we were done in no time. Afterwards, Brock showed Misty and me two empty guest bedrooms, which he said were ours for as long as we liked. Since it was getting pretty late, and I knew Brock was anxious to get started early tomorrow (funny how he didn't want to go at all earlier, but now that he had started he couldn't wait to continue) I let all of my Pokémon except Pikachu out in the Pokémon habitat we had seen earlier and then retired to my room.

I was sound asleep when all of a sudden electricity coursed through my body from a Pikachu Thunderbolt! I shot straight up in bed, instantly awake, and made note of the time at 12:00 before rounding on Pikachu to tell him off. I was just opening my mouth to release a string of rather vulgar words when I realized that the window to my room that I had made certain was closed before I went to sleep was open, and Pikachu and I were no longer the only occupants of our room!

**I am very sorry about how late this chapter is. I had every intention of finishing and posting this by at least spring break, but for some reason I have been feeling rather lazy lately and wasn't really inclined to work on it. But, on the plus side, this is a fairly long chapter.**

**While the cameo appearance of Colress might seem random, it is part of the grand over sweeping idea I have for the whole story. **

**If you have any questions or complaints about the story, don't just bad mouth it to your friends and then forget about it. Write a review or PM me and if I think it is an actual legitimate concern I will be sure to go back and fix it. Until next time EmeraldDragon, out!**


	4. May 12

May 12

As far as I could see (they were hidden back in the shadows) there were five of the weirdoes in uniforms in my room. One of them sort of stuck out a little bit, so I focused more on him than the others. He was wearing a black, long sleeved shirt and black pants. Elbow length gloves and knee length grey boots covered his hands and feet. A large red "R", either pinned to or actually a part of the clothing was on the front of his shirt. The creepiest thing though, was that he was normal. He didn't have a maniac gleam in his eyes, didn't look particularly crazy or evil in any way. He could just be some random, regular guy on the street and I wouldn't even notice him.

I immediately knew these guys were up to no good, and in a heroic act of stupidity I leaped out of bed, ready whip out a can of ninja kick butt. What happened instead was me getting dog piled on by four thugs will the fifth watched disinterestedly. Within seconds they had tied me up and were trying to force a gag in my mouth. In between a couple of them I could see Pikachu, preparing an attempt to save me. Knowing that it probably wouldn't work, and that it was much more important that Misty and Brock knew what was going on, I called out, "No Pikachu! Don't waste your strength on me! Go get Misty and the others! Hurry!" I couldn't say anymore, because after that they were finally able to stuff the rag into my mouth and tie it behind my head, but I saw and heard Pikachu fly across the room and smash a whole in the door.

Clearly not wanting to waste any time, the fifth person, a girl, started barking out orders and pointing at thugs. "You two, after that Pikachu! Don't let it warn any others! And you two get, follow the directions our spy sent us. I'll take care of this runt. GO!" As she shouted the last order, the four guys dumped me on the floor, still tied up like a bundle of hay and barreled through the door so fast they almost took out the frame.

The girl (she was only a couple of years older than the grunts, who were in turn only a little older than me) stepped out of the shadows, allowing me to get a good look at her. She seemed to wearing the female version of the uniform the guys were wearing, although it was white, but the gloves and boots were still black.

I tried to give my best "glare of death" at her, but those tend to be not very effective when you are tied up, gagged and lying on the ground. "This is your lucky day kid. Today you get to witness the rise of Team Rocket!"

If I had the ability to speak, I would have said something smart alexy like, "So I am lucky that I got beat down, tied up and gagged," and then made a comment about the irony of "the rise of Team Rocket," but all I could do was raise my eyebrows, unconvinced.

"Unfortunately kid, you probably won't be telling anyone else about it. We can't let you go running amok; that would destroy our intentions of remaining anonymous." She gave me a thoughtful look before speaking again. "I should probably just kill you now," my eyes immediately widened in fear, "but I would hate to get my new uniform all messy." Stupid reason not to kill someone, but, hey, if it kept me alive I wasn't going to complain. "I suppose we'll just have to keep you with the other hostage." Amazing how one sentence can hold so much information. First, although her initial argument for keeping me alive was that she didn't want a mess, since she was willing to keep me as a hostage, I knew she wouldn't actually have killed me, and her constituents in this "Team Rocket" probably wouldn't either. Second, she said other hostage, which meant they had found someone else who they thought was important enough to capture and keep, which could very well be Brock's missing father.

The Team Rocket member jotted down a quick note on a piece of paper and then fixed it so it was held to my body by the ropes tying me up. Then she sent out a Pidgeot from a Pokeball on her belt and ordered it to carry me back to base. Before I could begin to resist, she had pushed me out the window (feet first thankfully) and the Pidgeot was climbing out after me. Without missing a beat, it swooped down, grabbed my body with its claws and took off north.

Misty's Memoirs

Don't you just love how you're sleeping peacefully and actually relaxing for once when all of a sudden your friend's Pikachu decides to give you a nice Thundershock? Yea, me neither. Ash better have a good reason why his Pikachu is waking me up at... uh, what time was it?

"Pika Pika! Chu! Pika!" Pikachu yelled in a panicked voice, which interrupted my thoughts.

"What is it Pikachu?" I asked. Pikachu started motioning towards the hallway. "Okay..." I said rather sleepily, while slowly rising to my feet. I started to walk towards the door than realized that I almost forgot my bag. I grabbed it because you never know when you need it. Last time, having my bag proved quite useful in an emergency situation.

Pikachu gave me an irritated look, almost as if he thought I was too slow. I quickly ran up to where he was, but by the time I was where Pikachu was, Pikachu was racing down the hallway. "Pikachu! Wait up!" I said, sprinting after him. Pikachu quickly navigated the hallways with ease, while I was frantically trying to catch up.

Pikachu lead me straight into Ash's room. He started looking back and forth and freaking out. I noticed that the window was open. The sheets on the bed were scattered across the floor. It looked like something horrible had happened, which explains why Pikachu was freaking out.

Before I could even predict what had happened to Ash, an incredibly annoying alarm started going off. It blared, "Intruder Alert. Intruder Alert."

Abruptly, Brock spoke up from behind me. "Uh, Misty, what are you doing in Ash's room? And why are the sheets all over the floor? If you guys wanted that, you should have told me, and I suppose I could've provided a bigger bed..." He was interrupted by receiving a hard punch to the face.

"We did nothing and I came in here because Pikachu was freaking out and lead me here, Mr. Jump to False Conclusions," I screamed at him.

"Whoa, whoa. Settle down Misty," Brock said, putting his hands up in the air and backing away.

"Don't ever accuse me of something like that again!" I screamed.

"Alright, alright, I won't. I was just teasing you. I figured you guys wouldn't be doing stuff but you're fun to tease. So where is Ash anyways?" Brock asked, seeing that Ash wasn't in the room. This question shocked me.

"What?! I thought you knew where he was!" I exclaimed.

"Well, there is only one way to find out. To the security room we go!" Brock said, as Pikachu and I followed.

As we were running through the hallways towards wherever this security room is we saw a few scientists running frantically around trying to figure out what is wrong. Brock told a few to come with us, mostly the important looking ones. We also ran past Forest and Brock told him to follow us too. The crazy thing about these people was they followed him without a question, which only further showed how much he was in control.

We made it to the security room and Brock immediately went through the surveillance footage from the past twenty minutes or so. We watched as Ash slept peacefully for a few minutes. Suddenly the window opened and five people climbed in. I gasped at this footage. I saw Pikachu Thundershock Ash to wake him up. Pikachu, who was resting on my shoulder tensed at the sight of the people. We saw Ash trying to resist and ending up tied up and gagged. Then Pikachu ran out of the room followed by two of the strange people. Two more headed off in the opposite direction of the first two.

The last one called out a Pidgeot. Then she threw Ash out the window. The Pidgeot immediately flew after him. "Ash!" I gasped.

"Pika!" Pikachu yelled.

"Hold up, where did the other two people go?" Forest asked.

"I don't care. I'm finding Ash!" I said, racing out of the room.

"Misty! Wait!" Brock yelled, chasing after me.

I ran to Ash's room. I quickly jumped up and looked out the window. I could not see any bird Pokémon anywhere. He was gone and probably someplace far away. "Ash! I will find you!" I yelled, hoping my voice would echo off of the mountains so maybe he would hear me.

"Misty," Brock said, catching my attention. "We need to get to the habitat area. I think some of the people might have gone that way." I wanted to stay behind, but after I thought about it, I realized it would be better to help Brock.

"Okay," I said, running with him towards the habitat. We pushed open the doors.

What a scene lay in front of us. There were barely any Pokémon left! "No!" Brock yelled. "What could've caused this? Who did this?" He started asking. I looked around and saw a giant hole in the ground.

"Maybe that," I stated, pointing at the hole. Forest ran into the room behind us.

"Forest, I need you to get two flashlights and count up the number of Pokémon we are missing," Brock commanded him.

"Forest, belay there," I said, holding up two flashlights I had gotten from my bag. Pikachu jumped onto my shoulder, ready for a new adventure and ready to rescue Ash.

"We're missing five Omanytes, seven Kabutos, two Aerodactyl, one Lileep, one Anorith, two Kabutops and two Omastars. Long list short, we're missing 20 Pokémon," Forest reported.

"Well that settles it. We're not coming back until we have twenty Pokémon and Ash," Brock said, turning on his flashlight and looking into the tunnel. "Go Onix!" He commanded, as Onix appeared in the tunnel. Brock jumped onto Onix's head, near the fin, if that's what you would call it. He held out a hand to help me on.

I somewhat gracefully jumped onto Onix. And by somewhat gracefully, I mean I would have fallen off if Brock didn't catch me. "Thanks," I said, "but we have people and Pokémon we need to rescue so let's go."

"Onix! Into the tunnel!" Brock commanded, as we took off to save Ash.

The Pidgeot must have gained an evil nature from its less than kindly mistress; its raucous laughter proving it took great pleasure in dropping me and watching me smash into the ground when I was still about three feet up in the air. I landed face up on my back, knocking the wind out of me and causing dozens of bruises to form. I couldn't get a good look at my surroundings because of my position, but before I could begin the very dangerous endeavor of rolling around on an unfamiliar mountainside, a pair of kindly Team Rocket sentries read the note attached to me, and then one of them picked me up and carried me over his shoulders through the entrance to their base.

I decided to focus on what I was passing, because these very well could be the last sights I would ever lay eyes on, as opposed to what was going to happen. Sure the one lady said she wasn't going to kill me, so it should be safe to assume I was going to be kept prisoner, but maybe this guy had fewer qualms about bloodying up his shirt than she did.

Just a few feet into the cave and the passageway had narrowed down to a width at which two people could walk somewhat side by side. The unlit corridor of smooth grey stone wound back and forth into the mountain and slightly uphill, the twists and turns shutting out almost all light from outside and reducing my vision to only a few inches in front of me. Right about the time I thought it would get so dark I couldn't see my hand in front of my face (if, you know, I could move my hands), there was an abrupt reversal in the light level, and as we rounded the next turn we entered a huge open cavern comparatively flooded with light.

We're talking a ceiling 30 feet up in the air and 100 feet across, easy. Just like the tunnel, there were no electric lights in here, but they weren't necessary because, from where I was standing, almost the entire upper left section of the cavern was completely open to the air, letting the moon and starlight stream in. The reason for using such an open cave existed in the three helicopters all parked fairly close to each other in that general area. I was pretty certain that whatever they wanted in the research facility, they were planning on getting it and getting out, fast.

All told, including the guard at the entrance, the person carrying me, the five I had seen in my room and the seven that were here now, there were 14 of these "Team Rocket" members. The seven who were here in the launch room were busy scurrying around loading two metal containers with all of the supplies scattered around the cavern. The containers were designed to hook right under the helicopters, so the third one must have been for whatever they were stealing.

The friendly neighborhood body-carrier lugged me over to the one corner of the cavern where there was no activity. Here, crudely fashioned bars were set up in a semicircle out from the wall and rose up twelve feet in the air. There was one person inside, and if he wasn't Brock's missing father, then I couldn't tell a Houndoom from a Hoothoot.

Shaggy black hair, small squinty eyes; about the only difference between Mr. Flint and his numerous children, besides the age, was the gaunt, half staved appearance. I would have been able to guess that he had been here awhile even if I didn't know he had been missing for two weeks, and I was guessing the room service was even worse than the sleeping arrangements.

Body-carrier gave the bars a nice hard kick causing a deep reverberating tone to echo across the cavern. "Hey Gym Leader, get your fat butt up. You've got company." He used a Tangela from his belt to lift me up into the cage with its Vine Whip. That made me think about my own Pokémon back at the research facility. I hoped that Pikachu had been able to get to Misty in time, and that, whatever happened, those two, and all of my Pokémon would be okay.

The Tangela was much nicer than the Pidgeot, setting me down gently on the ground instead of dropping me from several feet above it. After being shocked awake, mugged by thugs, bound up with harsh, biting ropes, and carried who-knows-where by a sharp-taloned Pidgeot, you really appreciate the little things.

Mr. Flint didn't stir or make any sigh that he knew someone was there until after the guard had left. Then, very slowly as if every movement pained him, Mr. Flint crawled over to me and started fumbling with the knots. It took a long time because his hands were shaking with exhaustion, but I was patient and, though not as soon as I would have liked, I was free and ungagged.

"Thanks man. Mr. Flint, right. You look a lot like the Flint kids at the research center."

A sad, small smile crossed his face. "Flint, no mister. Everyone just calls me Flint. So how are my kids and how do you know them?" He asked calmly enough, but there was a slightly strained quality about it, a yearning for news after being deprived of it for weeks.

"They are good, though Brock seemed a little stretched being in charge. I actually came here for a Gym Battle, but when I found out that weird stuff was going on here I volunteered for a rescue mission to find you."

"Well that's nice. I appreciate it." He said that with a little smirk at the irony of volunteering to go rescue someone, and then being captured and imprisoned with the person you were rescuing in the first place.

"You're welcome. Anything for another Gym family."

"Another…? Wait, which Gym do you belong to?"

"My name's Ash Ketchum, from Viridian."

"A Ketchum? Well that's just dandy! Glad to be in the presence of Pokémon League Royalty!" Flint took my hand in a much heartier handshake than I would have thought possible in his condition.

"What's that supposed to mean, Pokémon Royalty?" Even though he had said it good-naturedly enough, it sounded like the kind of thing born of resentment.

"Oh nothing kid, I don't mean anything against you or your family. It's a little joke amongst the current generation of Gym Leaders. You wouldn't understand."

That has got to be the single most hated phrase and older person has ever used on a younger person. "Why wouldn't I understand?"

"Oh no, it isn't one of those things where you are too young to understand. I mean that we've all known each other for a long time and it would take a while to unwind all of our little inside jokes."

"Um, okay I guess."

"So what's the great Ketchum plan for escaping from _this _mess." That sounded like another inside story, so instead of worrying about it, I decided to do exactly what he suggested and come up with some great Ketchum plan.

The bars were only two or three inches apart, so even if they starved us for another year we wouldn't be skinny enough to fit through, and one look at the floor said there would be no digging out of this without shovels and pickaxes or Pokémon assistance, neither of which we had access to. It seemed like a lost cause; if Flint couldn't escape after two weeks, why should I be able to after five minutes. Then I saw the ropes. Well that might work.

"Flint, hand me those ropes they had tied me up with."

"Okay, sure thing kid. What for?"

Instead of answering, I pulled on them to test the strength. Seemed sturdy enough. I took the end of one and tied the tightest knot I could about two feet up one of the poles. Then I crisscrossed it between three others before tying another knot on the fifth. "I just hope we have enough. Let's see, twelve feet high and a step every two feet. You don't need on at the very top so that means five steps. We've got plenty of rope for this."

"Alright, I think I see what you're doing kid. Good to know you got your dad's creativity. I'll untangle these ropes; you shimmy on up there and tie them."

Up and down, up and down, it got a little tiring after a while, especially on the upper levels when I was perched precariously on a piece of rope, and it didn't help that Flint kept making me check and double-check each layer and then adding an extra rope anyway. Sometimes protective parenting skills can be majorly annoying. If the Rocket Grunts noticed what we were doing, they didn't let on, but there were quite a few close calls. As we worked, Flint told me what he knew about their operations.

"This Team Rocket, they aren't some small time group of thugs, stealing a few rare Pokémon to sell on the black market. If you just look around at some of the equipment that they have you can see that pretty quick. Apparently, this group is just one small part of a much larger organization. I have no idea how many are in it, or who is in charge, because they only ever refer to their leader as 'The Boss.'"

"How do you know all of this stuff?"

"They talk to me. The grunts do. Not about really important stuff, of course, but every once and a while, when they bring me a meal, they talk to me and blow off steam. One gal in particular, bright red hair and a different uniform from any of the others," that got my attention, "which I think means she is the leader of this operation, she always complains about how 'The Boss' didn't trust her enough for some spy mission. They hired some guy with weird blue hair to do it instead."

"What?! Did it look sort of like a crescent moon?"

"Yes. How did you know?"

"Because a guy, Colress, he matches that description. He was just at the research lab yesterday. He said he was from a group called Plasma Labs, or Plasma Tech., Plasma something. Anyway, apparently he was there to pick up an Anorith because Brock said they could have it to study or something…"

It was at that point Flint punched the wall and let out a low string of swear words. "Those people have been asking for access for a month now. I thought something was fishy about them, so I kept politely denying. And now they know exactly where the Pokémon habitats are located." Not too long after that, Flint finally decided that our makeshift ladder was safe enough. "Hopefully we can get out of here and cause a little trouble before they can get away with my precious fossil Pokémon."

I climbed up after Flint, so that if he slipped or fell, maybe I would be able to catch him. He tried to insist that I go first so he could do the same for me, but it was pretty clear from his current condition that I would be more likely to catch him, not he, I. It was fairly slow going: every step seemed difficult for Flint, and I found myself just hanging there, waiting for him to catch his breath. When we reached the top, I climbed over first so that I could climb down underneath him. I descended rapidly to wait for Flint at the bottom, but he had just stepped down to the third rung from the top when an earth-shattering rumble began emanating from the center of the cavern.

Flint slipped from shock, on foot going in between a pair of ropes so that when he fell he ended up just hanging there with his head upside down from but on the same level as mine. "Flint!" I yelled, no longer concerned with being overheard with the rumbling in the background. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just startled me, that's all. I wonder what is going on over there." I made a move to head off in that direction, then turned back to Flint. "Hey, don't mind me Ash. I'll be fine. You can and see what the commotion is, and I'll just be hanging around over here." I thought about it for a second, then decided that a strange rumbling noise beat a middle aged man who, on a good day, was probably in much better shape than I was. I ran over towards the center of the noise, but I kept low to the ground so as to be inconspicuous. I had to stop, however, because all of the Rocket Grunts were doing the same thing. They formed a loose ring of people about twenty feet across, which fortunately put me outside of it.

One of the Grunts, a bit thinner of than some of the others but otherwise just as disturbingly normal as most of the others I had seen, glanced at his watch and announced, "Right on time. Get ready freaks, this is the big one."

Like clockwork, Diglett and Dugtrio began erupting out of the ground and had cleared out the end of a large tunnel within seconds. Shortly afterwards, they were being called back into their Pokeballs by the same Grunts who had assaulted me and were now leading a squad of Machoke, _who had the research facility's fossil Pokémon in tow! _

A few commands were shouted and the Machoke hauled their pilfered Pokémon, somehow sound asleep despite the fact that they were being stolen, while all of the assembled Grunts congratulated their fellow thieves on a job well done. That pretty just sent me over the edge. And when I get made, I can get mean.

"Hey freaks! What kinds of girls make their boyfriends carry their Pokémon for them?" Originally, my half-baked plan was to get their attention and have them chase after me, hoping that Flint had freed himself by now and could do something the help. Then a voice in my head, the same one that was always saying, "Insert sarcastic comment here," was now telling me, "You can take these morons. Turn and fight them." Well, who was I to disobey voices in my head?

I readied my fists and secured my stance, fully prepared to get the beating of my life. But as the first Grunts came within my reach, something, unexplainable happened. Either the whole world slowed down to a Slowpoke's pace, or my speed and reaction time increased to what it would be if I was a Pokémon using Extreme-speed. Simultaneously the world faded into black. I wasn't blind though; instead, I could see blurry blue lights, the closest ones fairly human shaped.

On a hunch, I launched a kick near the top of the nearest blur and was rewarded with a sharp crunch, a loud shriek and the sudden smell of iron. Not wasting any momentum, I spun full circle and slammed my double fists into the head of the next Grunt. I was on a role now, punching, jabbing and kicking all of my opponents like some kind of kick-butt ninja. One or two, sometimes even little trios would rush up to stop me but to no avail. They all moved so slow it was almost ridiculously easy to pick them off one by one.

I had just one little problem, however, Not too long after I hand begun beating up Rocket Grunts, I became aware of a faint but very high-pitched ringing. I was able to block it out and ignore it for a good while, but every second the sound grew in pitch and increased in volume. The sound, which sounded like the pure white noise you get when you have a ringing in your ears, became an unconquerable distraction. The blue figures, which previously had been distinct enough that I could tell the Machoke carrying the fossil Pokémon from my human adversaries, were now so blurry they just looked like blue blobs to me. And the deterioration of my sight, or whatever this weird sense was, was happing at the same rate as my sound-induced headache was worsening. When it finally got to the point where I couldn't stand it anymore, I collapsed to the ground holding my head in pain, just hoping that it would end. Through squinted eyes I saw the blurry shapes closing in on my, but suddenly they pulled back.

Masked by the persistent whine in my ears, I could still just make out a deep rumbling sound coming from beneath me. It became louder and louder, to the point where it could almost drown out my headache-inducing noise, until a giant blur, orders of magnitude larger than anything else I had seen erupted up from where I assumed the Diglett tunnel was. It just kept coming up, more and more of it appearing from down below and it wasn't until the upper portion had reached the apex of it jump and started coming down that I saw the tail end of the thing.

Misty's Memoirs

_Okay Misty, calm down. Breathe in, breathe out. Inhale, exhale_, I thought to myself. I quickly ran through Brock's instructions in my head again: we would break in, save the Pokémon, save Ash, and leave, maybe capturing a few grunts for questioning. It seemed like a relatively simple plan, but everyone always says that it's easier said than done, and this was probably another one of those times.

There was only one logical problem that I could think of, we were running into a base of who knows how many people and Pokémon, and I only had (counting Pikachu) three Pokémon. If we did rescue Ash and he helped us fight, he wouldn't have any Pokémon.

The tunnel suddenly had a small light at the end.

"Here we go. Ready Misty? We're busting headfirst straight into an enemy base. Under normal circumstances this would be possibly the stupidest thing anyone has ever done, but for us it's not. I mean we're the children of Gym Leaders, right? We can take them. And if we can't..." Brock started to trail off, thinking to himself. I was about to say something when he continued. "Well if we can't beat them and I die, at least my last memory will be riding on my Onix with you. I'll die knowing I was trying to save my friend." Brock stated.

"Brock," I said, placing a hand on his shoulder, "everything will be alright. We'll rescue Ash and the Pokémon too." He looked at me, believing that what I said would be true.

"Look, we're almost at the end of the tunnel!" I exclaimed, pointing ahead. The light from the end of the tunnel was growing bigger and brighter.

"Here we go," I muttered to myself as Onix flew up out the opening. Immediately, grunts raced forwards and started calling out Pokémon. Brock and I jumped off Onix and Brock starting giving commands to Onix. I called out both Poliwag and Staryu, told them and Pikachu to attack the grunts with whatever attack pleased them, and raced forward to find and save the fossil Pokémon.

I quickly found the fossil Pokémon, probably because all the Machokes carrying them had abandoned the Pokémon and ran to the heat of the battle. I felt bad for leaving Brock, but then again he told me this was the plan. Or somewhere close along those lines. Same difference.

I ran over and began untying the Pokémon, waking them up and moving on to the next one as the one I just untied raced into battle. In a way it was a smart plan and we got more fighting forces out of it. I had already finished untying the Anorith, Lileep, both Omastar, both Aerodactyl, both Kabutops, two of the five kidnapped Omanyte, and three of the seven Kabutos. These people sucked at tying knots. I'm almost positive a Psyduck could do a better job.

I reached to untie the knot around the third Omanyte when a hand covered my mouth and another grabbed my arm and pulled me away.

"What do you think you're doing miss?" A man's voice asked me. Kinda ironic that he asked me a question after covering my mouth, but I really didn't care. I simply stretched and punched him in the face. The force of the impact threw him off of me, and he hit the ground headfirst and didn't move. Oops, my bad.

"Wow. You throw quite a strong punch girl," another voice said. I quickly turned around to see who it was, ready to fight. All I saw was a man dangling from a rope ladder. I quickly raced over to help him.

As I carefully undid the knot holding the rope together, part of me was asking if this was an enemy. I quickly ruled that out when the knot was actually challenging. I still got it undone and helped the man to the ground.

"Who are you?" I asked him. I couldn't hear his answer over the sound of three helicopters taking off. I looked around for the last few Kabutos and Omanyte, but they were nowhere to be found. Most of the grunts had escaped from the fighting and were getting away with the Pokémon!

"Pikachu use Thundershock!" I commanded, hoping to short circuit the engine before they could take off. Pikachu attacked, but the attack didn't affect the helicopters, probably because they were made to withstand electric energy. I watched, feeling helpless, as the helicopter flew away.

"Misty," Brock called, "where are you and are you alright?" I saw the look of recognition in the man's small squinty eyes when he heard the voice. Wait a second; this must be Brock's missing father, because he had the same eyes as Brock.

"I'm over here and you'll never guess who I found." I called back. I heard Brock's footsteps as he raced over here. First, he saw the grunt I had knocked out. Then, he saw his father.

'Dad!" Brock exclaimed, racing to embrace his father. The father-son reunion was nice and all, but something was still missing. That something was a person by the name of Ash Ketchum.

"Excuse my interruption of your hug, but Mr. Flint, have you seen a boy named Ash?" I politely asked him.

"As a matter of fact I did. He was the one who made this rope ladder and he ran that way to battle some grunts," he said, pointing towards the direction we came from. I ran to the area and began looking for Ash. It wasn't long before I heard a low moaning voice and turned and saw Ash curled into the fetal position, with his hands grabbing his head.

"Ash! Are you okay?!" I asked, racing up to him. He turned to look at me, but there was something wrong with his eyes. They had changed into glassy blue spheres! When he looked at me, it seemed pretty clear that he couldn't see me.

"Misty?" He asked with a hoarse voice. Geez, what had they been doing to him so far? I sat down next to him and put my hand on his shoulder.

"Ya Ash. I'm here. Don't worry. The grunts left. Pikachu's coming here right now," I informed him as Pikachu raced up to comfort him. Ash already looked a little more relaxed.

"I have a huge headache," he complained. He sat up, but the process looked like it hurt him.

"Hey Misty and Ash," Brock said, walking up, "We're going to leave soon. I figured we will all ride on Onix; the other Pokémon will walk back. Oh, and that guy that my dad informed me that you knocked out will come with us for future questioning. Ready to go?"

"Yea. One moment," I responded. Pikachu jumped up, but then he looked back down at Ash.

"Ash, I'm going to help you walk towards Onix. Come on, let's go," I explained, helping him stand up. Once he was stable on his own two feet, I wrapped his arm around my neck and grabbed his side to offer extra balance.

We took off at a really slow pace. Ash would occasionally stumble, but he never fell. We slowly worked our way back to Onix. I called back Poliwag and Staryu.

Once we arrived, Pikachu jumped on Onix. Brock and his dad helped lower Ash on and then I jumped on. We went back to the lab.

Once we arrived, we were greeted by cheers of relieved scientists seeing the Pokémon return and also all of Brock's siblings running up and giving Brock's dad and Brock a hug.

I had other concerns on my mind. I helped Ash walk back to his room and Pikachu followed. I lay him on his bed and then got a cloth and soaked it in water. I placed it on his forehead. It was something my mom always did for me when I was having a horrible headache.

"Thanks Misty," Ash whispered as he fell asleep. I sat in his room just watching him and rubbing Pikachu's fur.

I looked at the clock and saw it was near lunch time. I went down to the kitchen and made Ash a few sandwiches, and one for myself, and returned to the room.

I sat there patiently waiting for him to wake up.

The good news was, I no longer had a flock of Fearow Drill-Pecking my head. Unfortunately the Machop hadn't gotten the memo to stop their Karate Chops just yet. "Ugh, can someone get me some water, and maybe a bottle of aspirin?"

"Ash! You're awake!" Misty's voice sounded exceptionally shrill to my very sensitive ears, and her body slam of a hug didn't help matters.

"No kidding Misty, I hadn't noticed. Here's an idea: why don't you get off me, so that I can breathe?"

"I'm sorry Ash," Misty apologized, sitting back in her chair. "Would you like some sandwiches or something?"

"No thanks," I replied, sitting up and wincing in pain a little at the movement. "What I would really like is to know what happened. We aren't down in the cave anymore, I can tell that much, but how did you guys manage to escape? And where in the world is Pikachu?" When I looked around the room, it was glaringly obvious that my partner wasn't here.

"Well Ash, it's kind of a long story, are you sure you want to hear it all?"

"Misty, it's not like I'm going to go anywhere soon. I still feel a little tired, so I should probably just lie here anyway. This way I won't be utterly bored while doing it."

"Okay, if you're sure." She then launched into her epic tale with gusto, telling me she had every intention of relaying the full story to me whether I wanted it or not and she was just being polite and asking. Honestly, I don't know what she was talking about, Dad is much worse when he tells of one of his old adventures; by comparison Misty was pretty quick, expressing all of the main points without and extra details, and giving just enough suspense that I was actually feeling concerned for her when I heard about her attack, even though I knew she was perfectly safe in front of me.

It wasn't until Misty got to the part where she and Brock found me that I felt any need to speak up. "Wait, hold on. I don't remember talking to you."

"You don't?"

"No, the last thing I remember was a blurry shape, which I now know must have been Onix, bursting up out of the ground. After that the pain became so unbearable I couldn't focus." Even though I was still a little out of it, I couldn't help but notice the strong look of concern on Misty's face. I decided not to say anything, because I knew enough about Misty by now to know she would be embarrassed by her own compassion.

"Ash, there's just one thing that confused me though."

"What's that Misty?"

"Well, when I first found you, your eyes weren't normal. They were completely blue, and sort of glassy, like crystal orbs or something. Did anything look weird to you?"

"Yeah, it did. It was like; I wasn't really seeing people and things. Everything had this, blue energy field or something. I could still tell that those shapes were people and Pokémon, especially since they kept the same general shape, but it was really disorienting."

"Wow, I'm so sorry Ash. That sounds like it would be horrible."

"It wasn't so bad really. I just hope it never happens to me again." Misty acted like she was going to respond, but then the door to my room opened and in came Brock, Flint…and Pikachu! "Hey buddy, how's it going?" My little electric mouse jumped up onto the bed and into my lap.

"Pika! Pikachupi, kapicachu!" That was weird. Of course I could usually understand the intent behind Pikachu's words, but this time when he talked I got the strangest feeling, like if you used to know a language but can't really remember the words anymore, and then someone starts talking in it too you. It was like there was some barrier in my brain, and if I could just get around it, Pikachu and I could communicate perfectly together. Nah must be the effects of the headache.

"Hey kiddo, looks like you're doing better."

"Yeah, I'm feeling a lot better Flint. Like, I could have a Gym Battle better."

"Whoa, slow down there Ash. Don't you think you should get back on your feet before you start engaging in trainer battles again?"

"But I am back on my feet." To prove my point I swung my legs out of the bed and stood up. The room spun a little bit for a few seconds, but I managed to keep my balance. "See? And I can't think of a better way to get back into the swing of things than with my first Gym Battle."

"Well, I can see you are determined. Just like your father. And speaking of your father… Now I ain't blowing you off; we will have out Gym Battle together. But I need to prepare the Gym, since it has been a while since a battle was held there, so why don't you call your parents and let them know what has happened to you. But don't let them panic; tell them Ol' Flint has got you taken care of."

"Alright Flint, I guess I can agree to that. But only on one condition."

"What's that, Ash?"

I grinned as I answered. "You have to tell me where your phone is."

Flint just laughed. "Yeah, I don't think you can place a call through the floor. Brock, you what to show Ash where our phone is while I prep the Gym?"

"Sure thing Dad." For the first time since he entered, I took a good, long look at Brock. He looked a lot better, like a giant weight had been lifted off of his shoulders. With his dad back, it wasn't just him running this whole facility by himself. "Follow me, Ash."

"Alright. Misty, do you want to come meet my parents?"

"Sure, that sounds better than waiting around until I get to see you lose to Flint."

I spun around so fast I almost lost my balance, which temporarily destroyed my angry expression, but I was able to get it back quickly. "What did you just say?"

"Oh nothing, nothing," she replied, moving towards the door.

"I am not going to lose."

"Are too."

"Am not."

"Are too."

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Children! Would you please try to contain your childish impulses for just a short while? I would rather not get a headache today."

"Same here Flint," I said, "but you can't always get what you want."

"Ash." He said, completely deadpan.

"Yes?"

He started walking out the door but turned just before leaving to give an evil smile. "You're going to lose."

I am fairly confident that my scream of frustration was heard throughout the lab.

Misty and I were still arguing with each other as Brock led us to the main phone; Pikachu getting whiplash as we went back and forth.

"Will not."

"Will too."

"Will not."

"Will too."

"Will not."

"Will too."

"I'm going to win."

"No you're not."

"Yes I am."

"No, you're not."

"Yes, I am."

"Okay, if you too don't shut up I am going to lock in a room together so you can settle your differences where the rest of us can't hear you." I was surprised that Brock actually seemed angry, because he had been rather mild mannered all of the time that I had known him up till now.

"Yes Brock." Misty looked just as surprised as me when we responded at the same time.

"Thank you. And you guys must have perfect timing, because here we are." The lab's phone was nestled in a little enclave off of the main hallway. I was surprised I hadn't seen it before, but then again, the only times I had been down this way was when you took a meandering path interrupted by scientists and when I had to chase after Misty. I guess it wasn't too surprising after all.

Now, I know I had promised to call my parents when I got to Stone Town, and then I never wrote down what was said so it could be assumed by anyone reading my journal that I never actually did. Well, in fact I called them every day that I was in Stone Town waiting for Misty to recover, usually when the aforementioned person was asleep. I never wrote down those little talks because, well, in case someone actually does read this journal, I don't want them to know what kind of things my parents and I say to each other. That really isn't any of their business. I'm only writing down this time because, well, it was a little different.

I only had to wait for three rings after Brock dialed before my dad picked up. "Hey champ, what's up?"

"Oh, nothing much Dad, just taking down evil criminal with my friends here."

His eyes widened in surprise, which took a lot. "Wait, what? Don't let your mother know that, Delia would freak out."

"What am I freaking out about, Ashton?"

"Nothing dear."

"Who's that on the phone?" Mom came into the picture with a skillet and dish towel in hand, probably from washing the lunch dishes. "Ash, Sweetheart, is that you?"

"Hi Mom."

"Hello Ash. Who are those friends with you?" I was about to answer when she called out to someone else in the Gym. "Hey Giovanni, come say hi to your favorite nephew."

"Giovanni is there?" Giovanni, or Uncle Gio as he was known by me, was my dad's younger brother. Shorter and broader than Dad, he spent his days out in the wilds of eastern Kanto, helping to keep control of the prolific criminal population out there. You would think that all of that time spent roaming the plains and wandering the forests fighting law-breakers might have hardened him, but he was always a really fun guy when he visited.

Uncle Gio walked up to the screen wearing one of the black suits he always seemed to be wearing whenever he visited. "Hey Squirt, how's it going?"

"Pretty good Uncle Gio. What's happening out east?"

"Oh, just the same old nonsense. Pokémon thieves stealing from right under trainer's noses, gangs trying to take over the towns, the usual. How are you enjoying your Pokémon journey? I can see you have a couple of friends with you."

"This is Misty Waterflower, her mom runs the Cerulean City Gym."

"Hi."

"Hello Ms. Waterflower."

"And this is Brock. His dad is the Gym Leader of Pewter City and also in charge of the Pokémon research lab here."

"Isn't that the one where they are reviving Pokémon from fossils?"

I let Brock answer, since the question seemed more directed at him. "Yes sir, it is." He sighed and looked off in the distance. I knew what he was thinking about: the fossil Pokémon Team Rocket had gotten away with.

That gave me an idea. "Hey Uncle Gio."

"Yes Ash?"

"Have you ever heard of a group that calls themselves Team Rocket." The weirdest thing happened then. I could swear I saw a look of terror cross Giovanni's face, just for a split second. But his answer was completely contrary to that.

"No Ash, I've never heard of them. Why? Do they have something to do with the fossil Pokémon?"

That also seemed suspicious. "How did you…"

"Oh, just an educated guess. We were just talking about them before you brought up this, Team Rocket, did you say? I thought there must be a connection."

"Yeah, they broke into the lab last night and stole a bunch of the Pokémon. We were able to fight them off and get most of the Pokémon back, but they managed to escape with a few."

If I had been thinking I wouldn't have said that until after my mom had left, because, as expected, she freaked out completely. "Ash, are you okay? They didn't hurt you, did they? Oh, please tell me you are alright."

"I'm fine Mom. They never laid a finger on me." Misty gave me a raised eye, but I silenced her with a quick glance. Judging by her reaction, it wouldn't be very good for my Pokémon journey if I told her about what else had happened, especially since I still wasn't sure what had happened.

Giovanni must have sensed further maternal outbursts, because he pulled a Pokegear out of his pocket and nodded in my direction. "I'll be sure to be on the lookout for those Pokethieves you told me about, Ash. But in the meantime, I have a few calls I need to make, so if you'd please excuse me."

"Ash, sweetheart, are you sure you're okay?"

"Mom, I couldn't be any more okay, okay? Besides, you're nagging me is worse than anything those thugs could have done to me anyway."

Dad just laughed as Mom pursed her lips into an impossibly thin line. "Good one kid. See honey, I'm always telling you nagging can be dangerous. Maybe you should give it a rest before you hurt your only son."

Mom gave him this evil death stare that actually made him stop. "Well fine, if nobody else is going to be concerned for their safety, then why should I care?" She threw her hands up in disgust, almost hitting Dad with the pan, and stormed off back into the kitchen.

Dad blinked a couple of times before shrugging his shoulders at us. "I swear if I live to be a hundred I never will understand that woman." We all laughed at that. "So Misty, are you the self-destructive girl Ash was telling me about who gets eaten and stung on a regular basis?" Now I could see the playful twinkle in his eye that said he was just joking, but I knew Misty couldn't because she was too bust giving me a death glare of her own.

"Really, is that what Ash told you about me?" I suppose she was addressing my dad, but she was starring right at me as she asked the question.

"Hey Brock, would you mind standing on my left?"

"Why do you want me too, Ash?"

"Oh, no particular reason. I just don't want to be torn apart by this sociopathic girl over here."

"Sorry bro," he laughed. "You made your bed, so you're going to lie in it. You're on your own for this one. Speaking of being on your own…" Then he ran off down the hallway.

Funny, I was pretty sure I was at least I little taller than Misty, so why did I have the feeling that she was a ten foot giant starring down at me? "Ash, I have a feeling I should go now. I have no interest in being used as a witness in a murder investigation."

"Oh, gee. Thanks Dad." He waved at me before ending the call.

"So Ash, what was it you said about me always hurting myself?"

"Um, uh. Don't hurt yourself on that thing flying this way?" I pointed off in the distance, which was just enough of a distraction to allow me to run off.

After running around most of the lab, dodging Misty repeatedly as I grabbed my bag and Pokémon, I managed to escape into the basement where Flint's Gym was. Ho-ly crap! And I thought my dad had a cool Gym.

The room was designed to look like a giant underground cavern, about as big as the Team Rocket base. The standard battle area border was marked out over an irregular stone floor. Within this area were four columns of rock near the corners, with many other stalactites scattered around the rest of the arena and some of the surrounding floor, although none of them were taller than a couple feet. The stairs that I had just run down exited out onto the amphitheater styled benches for non-challengers to watch the match.

All of the Flints excluding Brock and Mr. Flint himself were sitting in the first row of seats, towards my right. Brock was standing on the opposite side of the field in the judges position, unfurling the flags used in official Pokémon battles. Flint was in the Trainer's box on the end of the field that was to my right.

"Ash, come on down." Flint called out to me. "We're almost ready, so you can go ahead and take your place opposite me."

"Sounds good." I ran down the bleachers, using the seats as steps, then walked across the field to the Trainer's box opposite Flint.

When Brock finally got the flags opened, he started calling out the rules that were standard for any Gym Battle, which I already knew by heart from the many times I had heard my mom say the same thing at the start of Dad's battles. "Each Trainer will be allowed to use three Pokémon. The match will be over when all three of one Trainer's Pokémon are unable to battle. Only the challenger will be allowed to switch Pokémon during the battle. Begin!"

Flint didn't have any qualms about making the first move. "Aron, let's go!" I, on the other hand, was a bit more cautious. This was my first Gym Battle, and I didn't want to blow it by making a stupid mistake. Even though I had spent some time with these guys down in the Pokémon habitat, I didn't know a lot about them in battle, so I whipped out my Pokedex and did a quick search.

"Aron, the Iron Armor Pokémon. They usually live deep in the mountains. However, hunger may drive them to eat railroad tracks and cars." Great, probably wouldn't be a good idea to leave any scrape metal lying around unless I wanted it to be eaten. But from the general stats shown it looked like Aron focused more on a strong physical defense and full frontal attacks, with little strength in the speed and special categories. Well I had something that could counter that.

"Tangela, I choose you!" I was only dimly aware of Misty sneaking in as I called out Tangela, and I didn't dwell on it. Right now all that was on my mind was this battle.

"Aron, use Iron Defense and then get in close with a Take Down!"

"Don't let him Tangela. Use Vine Whip to keep it back!"

Aron glowed briefly with a silver light as its defense skyrocketed. Now it would be almost impossible to do any physical damage to it, and the recoil from its own Take Down attack would be substantially lowered. But when it had just barely begun its charge, Tangela had grabbed it with her vines and raised it up in the air, making it almost completely helpless.

"Alright, throw it!" Aron went flying across the field and hit the wall, hard. But when it got up it seemed like it wasn't hurt at all.

"You still good to fight Aron?" Flint asked his Pokémon.

"Ar, Aron!"

"Alright, then let's do it. Charge in with Iron Head, but this time use our wall strategy."

"Ar-on!" The little guy charged in again at full but still rather slow speed.

"Okay Tangela, we've seen this before. Catch it with your Vine Whips again." I fully expected for the same thing to happen as last time, but now, just as the vines were about to reach Aron, he pulled up and a shimmering blue wall shot out from his shield-like head extending about a foot in all directions. Tangela's vine bounced right off. "Crap, that's Protect, isn't it?"

"You're right Ash. Aron might not be as fast as other Pokémon, but it doesn't matter how slow it is if they can't land a blow."

The moment Tangela's vines retracted, Aron stopped making the shield and resumed its charge. "Okay Tangela, if a frontal attack won't work, then we'll have to hit it from the sides. Use Vine Whip again but pull it at the last moment so they go around the shield." Just as I expected, Aron stopped and used Protect once more. But this time the vines swung around and instead of hitting the shield were able wrap around Aron. "Now use Mega Drain!" Flint could only watch helplessly as green bubbles of energy were sucked out of Aron down the vines and into Tangela. Not only was weakening Aron, but it also recovered any energy that Tangela might have lost in the battle so far. Aron struggled in vain for a few minutes, but eventually it succumbed to defeat and fainted.

I commanded Tangela to set down her opponent gently. No need to hurt him more after he was already eliminated from the battle. "Aron is unable to battle. The first round goes to Tangela." Brock delivered his official ruling as his father returned Aron to its Pokeball.

"Good job little bubby, go ahead and rest awhile. And good job to you Ash. You've clearly trained your Pokémon well. But this next round won't be so easy. Onix, bring it!"

Oh, for the love of… And I thought Brock's Onix was big. This one was enormous! It was so huge it could only just barely fit on its side of the field by wrapping around the pillars. "Um, Tangela, do you want to return?"

"Tangle, Tangela la Tangle!" She gave me a defiant stare through the vines covering her face that said she was going to see this through to the end.

"Alright, if you insist." I was just thinking about what the best way to tackle this gigantic problem was, when Flint gave his commands.

"Onix, use Dig!" With a speed that seemed to defy its massive size, Onix reared up and slammed its head into the ground, drilling down so fast its entire body was gone within seconds.

"Okay Tangela, watch out because it can surface at any time and anywh-" I didn't even get to finish my warning before the spot that formally held my Pokémon now held an upwards moving wall that was the Rock Snake Pokémon. Tangela was thrown clear up to the ceiling before slamming down hard to the ground. Before I could check to see if she was okay, Onix wrapped its stone body around her and began squeezing. "Tangela!" I screamed.

"Tang tangla tanglelala!" My poor Pokémon's screams were drowned out but the wall of rock surrounding her. Gradually they became fainter and fainter until I couldn't hear them at all anymore. Onix slowly uncoiled its body to drop Tangela to the ground.

"Tangela is unable to battle. This round goes to Onix."

"Tangela return. Good job girl, you did your best." I returned her Pokeball to my belt and thought carefully about who to use next. But after just a few seconds the choice seemed fairly obvious. "Gyarados, I choose you!" The Atrocious Pokémon roared his contempt for any that might try and challenge it. "Let's get things started with some Dragon Rage!"

A purple pulsating ball of light formed in Gyarados's mouth, then shot out straight for Onix's head. The blast cowed Onix for a moment, but then it was right back up and ready to go. "Use Smack Down!" At Flint's command, Onix swung the upper third of its body up in the air, then brought it down like it was going to slam into Gyarados.

"Not today Flint. Gyarados, dodge it, then knock it off balance with an Aqua Tail." Most people would expect a Water Type Pokémon to be a bit slower on land, but that wasn't true for Gyarados. He rolled clear of his attacker, then slammed his powerful tail into its face. The attack did more than just knock it off balance; Onix went flying into one of the columns hard enough to daze it. "Keep it up Gyarados, don't let it recover."

Onix was just peeling itself off of the rock pillar when it got another face-full of watery tail. Every time it started to get up, Gyarados would smack it across the room. It was sort of like watching a golf tournament, with Onix's head being the ball. "Don't let it push you around Onix." Flint called out. "Pull back and use Rock Tomb."

"Oh no you don't. Gyarados, let's finish this with one last Dragon Rage!" Once again the purple, pulsating orb materialized in Gyarados's mouth, but this time it was bigger and more powerful. Gyarados must have put everything it had into one final strike. Onix was just summoning its rocks when it was blasted across the room and into the pillar. It finally rolled to a stop against the wall, immobile.

"Onix is unable to battle. The third round goes to Gyarados."

"Good job. You were able to get him right where I wanted him. Ash, like I told you, I haven't battled in a while now, but I'm glad that I got to have this one with you. Not many beginning trainers can take out a fully grown Onix like that, so kudos to you. But there are only a handful of trainers who have ever been able to defeat my last Pokémon. I don't normally use him for Gym Battles, but I think you deserve to see my very best. Aerodactyl, take to the skies!"

"Well Flint, I appreciate that you want to go all out on me, but I think I have this one in the bag. Knock it out of the air with an Aqua Tail Gyarados!"

"Not going to happen Ash. Thunder Fang!" The bird dodged Gyarados's attack easily, then flew in from the side, electrified jaws wide, to clamp down on his back. Electricity arced over his body as Gyarados desperately trashed around, trying to escape. But it was to no avail. Within seconds he was out, and Aerodactyl released him only to watch him crash to the ground.

"Gyarados is unable to battle. The round goes to Aerodactyl."

My options were pretty slim now. Beedrill would be now help against a Flying Type, and even without the Thunder Fang to consider Spearow still wouldn't be able to match Aerodactyl in an aerial battle. I really only had one choice. "Pikachu, are you up for this?"

"Pika!" Electricity sparked from my partner's cheeks as he shouted his readiness.

"Okay, well it's all up to you now. So go out there and let's do this thing."

"Pika!"

Misty's Memoirs

I have seen quite a lot of gym battles. Easy to say when you went to the gym pretty much every day as a child. I've witnessed my mom fight some pretty intense ones, but this battle between Flint and Ash was something completely different.

Of course I was still mad at Ash from what he apparently told his dad about me, but I was kinda hoping he would win this battle. I only told him that he was going to lose earlier today because I knew it would make him more determined to win. I learned that trick from being the youngest of four children.

As Ash instructed Pikachu to enter the battle against Aerodactyl, I got out my Pokédex to do some research. My mom let me borrow our family Pokédex for my month trip to look up facts about any unknown Pokémon that I would come across while travelling.

First I typed in Aerodactyl. My Pokédex informed me that it was a rock/flying type Pokémon. Being a rock/flying type Pokémon meant it was weak to water, ice, rock, steel, and electric attacks, but it had some resistance to normal type moves.

Next, to see how the battle was stacked, I quickly looked up information about Pikachu. Pikachu was just an electric Pokémon. It is weak against ground moves and resistant to flying and steel attacks. This match seemed to be in Pikachu's favor, but my mom constantly taught me that you can never assume during a gym battle. I keep my Pokédex on my lap, but I turned my attention back to the battle.

Ash had already ordered Pikachu to use a Quick Attack. Pikachu charged, but abruptly stopped once Aerodactyl took to the skies.

"We've got Aerodactyl right where we want him, don't we Pikachu?" Ash exclaimed with a smirk.

"Pika!" Pikachu responded, agreeing with his master.

"Let's use a Thunder Wave!" Ash commanded. I think his intent was to cripple Aerodactyl with paralysis, halving its speed, but ironically the very speed Ash was trying to remove allowed Aerodactyl to avoid the attack.

Suzie, spotting me sitting a few rows behind her and her siblings climbed over to me. When she sat down, I smiled at her.

"Misty, who do you think will win this gym battle?" She asked.

"Well Suzie, it's hard to tell. Pikachu has an advantage over your dad's Aerodactyl; however, I'm sure your dad has much more experience than Ash does. We will have to wait and see for ourselves."

Suzie apparently liked my answer because she shifted her attention back towards the match.

"Aerodactyl, Ice Fang!" Flint commanded.

"Pikachu, dodge it and try a Thunder Bolt while Aerodactyl is flying by!" Ash countered. Pikachu dodged the attack and hit Aerodactyl with the bolt of electricity.

For a while the battle went back and forth like that. Flint commanding the same attack, Ash countering it with a Thunder Bolt. I started to wonder why Flint was calling the same move over and over. Wait, he must be trying to wear Pikachu out! The electric mouse Pokémon was already looking more tired.

"Aerodactyl, Bulldoze!" Flint commanded.

"Wait, what?! I thought Aerodactyl can't learn a move like Bulldoze!" Ash exclaimed, forgetting about Pikachu.

"Pika!" Pikachu cried out in pain as the attack hit. While the attack didn't knock out Pikachu, he still came up slowly and it was pretty clear he couldn't take another hit like that.

"Yes Ash, you're correct. Aerodactyl cannot naturally learn bulldoze; however, there are special devices, called Technical Machines, or TM's for short, that can be used to instantly teach Pokémon a move they couldn't normally learn," Flint replied. "Now Aerodactyl, use sky drop!" Aerodactyl flew over and grabbed Pikachu and then rapidly ascended holding the mouse Pokémon.

"Ah! Pikachu use Thunder Bolt now when it can't miss!" Ash yelled. Suddenly, a huge flash came from the battlefield. It was so bright, everyone was forced to turn away.

I was the first one to look back at the battle arena. What I saw amazed me. Pikachu was on the ground, panting, but still on all fours. Aerodactyl was also on the ground, but unlike Pikachu, Aerodactyl was out cold.

"Ash! You won!" I exclaimed, racing up to give him a hug. I could faintly hear Brock saying, "Aerodactyl is unable to battle. The victory goes to Ash!" At the moment I didn't care what he was saying. I was enjoying this hug. Out of nowhere, Ash started chuckling.

"What's so funny?" I asked, pulling away from the hug.

"Oh nothing really. It's just... well... that's the second hug today. Is there something I need to know about?" He asked.

I was taken aback. He's paid that much attention? Wow. He doesn't count how much food he eats, but he counts how many times I had hugged him. Interesting. Just to confuse him, I smiled and winked mischievously.

"You've got a badge to get," I informed him, trying not to laugh at his reaction to my wink. He snapped out of it and raced to collect Pikachu and his badge.

"Great job Pikachu!" Ash told his pal, picking him up.

"Ash, as proof of your victory in the Pewter City gym, I award you the Boulder Badge," Flint formally stated.

"Alright! I just got my first badge!" Ash yelled, turning around towards me and striking a pose with his hand in a peace sign. That's when I could hold it back any longer and started laughing at his silly pose.

It was much later when we stopped to make camp. All three of us.

Not long after my match against Flint, with my head was still reeling from the elation of winning and the confusion of not knowing the meaning of Misty's actions, Brock approached me. "Hey man, great job back there. Not a lot of new trainers like you could have taken out a grown Aerodactyl with just a Pikachu."

"Thanks Brock, but aren't judges supposed to be impartial?" I grinned at him.

"Yeah, I suppose," he replied, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. Then his face brightened. "But I'm not judging now, so I think it's okay if I give you my opinion of the match." I nodded my agreement. "Anyway, there's something that I wanted to ask you."

"Shoot."

"Well, don't get me wrong, my dad is a great teacher and all, but there is only so much that you can learn about battling from just training in a Gym." I was pretty sure I knew where he was going with this, but I let him continue. "And I was thinking, you're going on this big journey to get all of the Kanto Gym Badges, and that's going to take you to a lot of different places, where you will meet a lot of different people and Pokémon, which is sure to help you grow as a trainer. So I was wondering, if you wouldn't mind me tagging along."

"Hmm, I don't know. What do you think Pikachu?"

From his usual vantage point on my shoulder, my partner looked from Brock, to me, and back to Brock. Then he nodded. "Pika kachukapi chukapi chuchu!"

"You think so? Well Brock, if Pikachu says you're in, then welcome to the team."

"Really? Thanks Ash!" For a moment I thought he was going to hug me or something and I would regret my decision, but he just clapped me on the shoulder and ran off to pack his stuff.

Now, I was really glad that Brock was coming along. He had already led us most of the way down a semi-secret short cut that would take us past Mt. Moon, and after we made camp he pulled out some pans and things and made the best tasting hamburgers I'd ever eaten off of a campfire.

When we were finished eating, we all laid back on our sleeping bags (there had been an extra one for Misty in the lab) and looked up at the stars. They were much closer up here in the mountains, and that closeness to such vast, open space gave me the feeling that I could do anything. And with a brand new badge in my pocket and two great friends by my side, life looked pretty good.

**Hey, it's the Emerald Dragon! Guys I am really sorry about how long it took to get this story up. I know I could use the lame excuse that I had finals to deal with, plus marching band takes up a lot of time, but I reality I was just being lazy and not writing when I should have. But on the plus side, you get a really long chapter to read. **

**I think it is pretty clear by now that the votes went in Flint's favor (or you could think that they went against him, because he ended up losing a battle as opposed to not being in it, but whatever). This is actually the way I wanted it to be, so I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. **

**Since this chapter is so long, I can't remember all of the little details that I included, so if you have any questions, just PM me or write in a review. **

**Until next time, this is the Emerald Dragon, signing off!**


	5. May 13

May 13

There is nothing in the world like waking up to fresh cooked pancakes on a warm spring morning. Brock must have some kind of internal alarm that wakes him up, because there is no way you could have gotten me up at the crack of dawn to make breakfast for two fairly newly made friends and their Pokémon. I'm not saying I don't value my friends, but at 6 or 7 in the morning, I value my sleep more.

"Brock, I don't know if having you around is such a good thing," Misty complained. "If you keep making us meals like this, I'm going to get fat."

"Well thank you Misty. I'll take that as a compliment."

"Fat? How could you get fat? You've only had like two pancakes. Yo Brock, toss me another one." Brock complied, flipping the flap-jack with an expert toss from the frying pan off the spatula and right in the center of my sticky, syrup covered plate.

Misty shook her head in disgust. "Whereas you've already had five, not counting the one you're just now shoving in your face."

I didn't have a lot of room to speak, my mouth mostly full of delicious food, but I managed to force out a, "So?" without losing too many crumbs.

Misty sighed and when back to slowly picking at her third pancake. I gave Brock a bemused look, who just smiled and went back to making his own breakfast.

When the dishes had been washed in the stream that had carved out our path and our assorted possessions packed away in our bags, we set off east. The path on either side of the stream wasn't very wide; it had probably been carved out when there was an exceptionally heavy rain and the little stream swelled to almost three times its size. There was just enough room now on our side to walk comfortably in a single file line: Brock in front, Misty in the middle, and Pikachu and I bringing up the rear.

As we walked, my mind began to wander.

I thought about my Gym Battle. Although it had been a pretty difficult fight, it had also been completely worth. I had my first Gym Badge, which put me one eight of the way to the Pokémon League, and one step closer to being a Pokémon Master. But an even better reward for winning the battle than a Badge was Misty hugging me…

I thought about my parents. Right around now, assuming Mom would have been able to drag me out of my comfortable bed this early, we would be finishing prepping the Gym for the day's challengers. What would they be doing now? Actually, with my journey allowing them to be alone for the first time in fifteen years, I probably didn't want to know what they were doing…

I thought about Brock, Flint, and their whole family. It was pretty cool how, when Flint was gone, Brock was able to step in and take over the Gym and the Lab, even if he wasn't yet old enough to fully deal with the stress of running the place on his own. I'm sure that when Brock gets older, and his dad is a retired old man (although that image was a little difficult to picture in my head), he would be more than ready to take over in his father's stead. Dad would probably want me to do the same thing when I got older, but, now that I've gotten a taste of being on the road I don't know if I could ever settle down like that. I wish that they had had another kid, son or daughter, so that I could continue traveling the world but the Gym would stay in the family.

I thought about what had happened in the cave. None of the researchers, not even Flint, knew why everything had gone blue on me and I had suddenly become the best fist fighter the world had ever seen. I wish that I had talked to Dad about it; maybe it was some weird genetic thing that he had gone through, but I just couldn't with Giovanni there. Which sounds stupid because, if it was genetic and Dad also went through it, then you would think Uncle Gio would have too, but I always feel awkward talking about important stuff like that in front of him. When I was younger he was such a care-free, happy go lucky guy, but now I think all of those years fighting ruffians in the east have taken their toll on him, and he's become a much darker person. He can still joke around, but I always get an uneasy, and dare I say it, malicious vibe from him. No, that's stupid. He's my uncle. I should think about him that way.

But there was one thing that weighed more heavily on my mind that anything else. The girl who's red Ponytatail was currently bobbing up and down just a couple feet in front of my face.

Misty was, different, from other girls that I had met. She wasn't all skirts and makeup and other foo-foo crap that no one in their right mind should care about. She was much more down to earth than that. I honestly think that if Gyarados's bite hadn't been so serious of an injury, she would have just gotten back up and pushed him back in the river, if he wasn't so heavy as to make that impossible. And from what I've seen, most girls would have stayed in bed for a month getting pampered and fussed over, whereas I practically had to tie her down to get her to stay a week.

She had so much energy and spirit, very much in contrast to the water type she specialized in. It made one wonder why she would pick a preferred type that was so contrary to her basic nature. It reminded me of the caution Dad had given me: all girls are a puzzle wrapped in an enigma cloaked in a myriad of word games written in a secret code even they don't understand.

But despite, or quite possibly because all of that, I could sense powerful feelings towards her growing inside of me. It was something far beyond base physical attraction, although there was that. Could it be…no, this was much too early for so powerful an emotion. But something like it was there. I guess I'll have to say friendship, for lack of a better term, just with more hugging.

Misty Memoires

Let me start off saying this, Brock makes the best pancakes ever. I can easily see why Ash ate so many. I guess it's a good thing that we're hiking down a mountain so I can lose the calories from the three pancakes I ate.

We were walking down a rather beautiful mountain. It had a spectacular view of all of the surrounding terrain, Pokémon playing in the forest, and I was walking with two great friends. Not only that, we were walking next to a stream. I always love water.

Brock led the way, since he lived in the area and knew it better than Ash and I. He had suggested we walk beside this stream and, of course, I agreed. Besides, it was pretty easy since we had a good ten feet of space between the stream and the edge of the forest. I followed Brock, with Ash right behind me, and Pikachu was dozing on his shoulder. He was probably hoping to catch a nap since Brock woke him up earlier.

None of us were talking though. Brock was mainly focusing on the path ahead of him, occasionally checking the map and compass in his hand, even though the path seemed fairly straightforward. Who knew what Ash was thinking about, because when I turned to look back at him his eyes were all glazed over and he didn't even notice my staring. I myself was just thinking about random topics.

First, I thought about Cerulean City, my home. I would probably need to return there soon because my mom had told me that I could only explore for a month. I wasn't even sure if Brock and Ash would go with me, but I'm sure if they didn't I would eventually meet Ash when he went for the Cascade Badge.

I kinda missed swimming in the gym pool between my mom's matches. I would do laps to increase my fitness. It was pretty tiring, but for some reason I always wanted to do it. Lots of times Seel would swim with me. Well until my sisters yelled at Seel to stop wasting it's energy.

I feel bad I left my mom alone with my sisters. My dad left a few days before I did to go to some other region. Apparently there was some huge shipment of goods, and they were willing to pay more than top dollar for a speedy delivery. He is supposed to return a few days before I get back. Until then my mom is stuck with my three sisters, who I'm sure are bugging mom if they can go shopping, skip their day of working in the gym, or go on a date. Daisy, Violet, and Lily can be so annoying at times. Scratch that, all the time.

The stream to our left was filled with Poliwag and Magikarp. I already caught myself a Poliwag, and there was no way I would go back to my mom with a weak Magikarp. Now when it evolves into Gyarados it's nice, but you would waste six months training it just to get it to evolve. It isn't worth it.

I started to think of Ash. He had shown a lot of bravery ever since he met me. He had saved my life twice, from his Gyarados and the swarm of Beedrill. I guess I saved his life when we rescued him from Team Rocket, but that still left me one time in his debt.

I don't know why, but ever since Ash saved me from Gyarados, my tomboyish personality had faded into the background. Maybe, it was because Ash was special to me. Maybe I was slowly starting to like him.

But if I am going to return to Cerulean City soon, I need to stop thinking of Ash. First of all, my sisters would bug me to death about me liking a boy. Secondly, once he got his gym badge I would probably never see him again. I'm sure with his looks he wouldn't have a hard time finding another girl. Probably one more beautiful than me.

Wow Misty. You really need to swim. You never had thoughts like these when you swim.

There was this little part of me that hoped that somehow, things would work out in my favor. Maybe my mom would give me another month off, or let me start my adventure.

Because I wasn't really paying attention, I didn't notice a Paras run out from the forest right in front of me, until the mushroom Pokémon yelled "Paras," as I was about to step on it.

I screamed and jumped backwards, slipped on a large pebble on the riverbank, and would've landed on the hard, uneven ground if Ash hadn't caught me. Luckily he had quick reflexes.

After he helped me back up and was sure I was balanced, I thought for certain he was going to battle, so I kept back to stay out of the way, but what he did next surprised me. "Hey little guy," he said, getting down on one knee next to it. "Did the big, bad Misty almost step on you?"

"Hey, don't coo at it like it's a baby or something, battle it!"

"But Misty, I think it is a baby. Look at how small it is." Brock had turned back to see what the commotion was, and was now kneeling next to Ash to examine my monstrous attacker.

"Small? That thing is giant!"

"What are you talking about Misty? If this little guy is six inches tall, I'm ten feet!"

I gave them both an exasperated sigh. Couldn't they see how much that thing upset me! "It's a bug!"

Ash and Brock looked at each other and exchanged "Oh"'s of understanding. Finally, they would deal with the problem so we could get back on the road. But then Ash winked at Brock…and picked the Paras up!

"Wha…wha…what are you doing?!"

"Misty, I think it's about time you got over your fear of bugs. And what better one to start with that a cute little guy like this?"

"Parpar!" The little monster gave me an evil glare and rubbed its deadly sharp claws together in anticipation.

"Ack! You keep that thing away from me!"

"See, he likes you."

"Are you crazy?! Eeek!" The Paras jumped out at me to attack, but I was able to turn away in time so it only stabbed into my backpack with those nasty claws. I swung my pack off my shoulders and started spinning around in circles trying to get it off.

"Parpar parsa par!"

"Misty, stop! You're hurting it." Ash run up and grabbed my arms from behind so I could spin anymore. The sudden stop jerked the bag out of my hands. A sharp tearing noise covered up Paras's continued shrieks of terror as my bag, the Pokémon, and the Pokeballs that fell from the freshly made hole all went flying in different directions. I could only watch in horror as one of the Net Balls Mom had given sailed through the air to connect with the Paras and caught it instantly.

"Nooooooooo!" I cried in anguish. "Now I'm going to have that thing forever!"

We ate a rather subdued lunch. Brock had been able to sew up Misty's backpack as good as new, but that didn't seem to comfort her any. Afterwards he advised we all sit down and eat a few sandwiches for an early lunch, but none of us seemed particularly hungry. Misty only halfheartedly nibbled on one, and even I found myself slowing down after only three.

I felt really, really bad. I defiantly didn't want to hurt Misty because of a Pokémon (again), but it didn't make any sense to leave her in perpetual terror of all Bugs for the rest of her life. That didn't seem like the sort of thing that a friend, or potentially more, would do. But perhaps I approached the situation the wrong way. Perhaps a little tact would have been more useful than just throwing Bugs at her?

After sitting there for several minutes racking my brain trying to decide what to do, I finally made up my mind. "Misty, I'm really sorry about what happened. I want you to know that I wasn't trying to hurt you."

"I know that."

"You, you do?" I was surprised by speediness of her response, and how she snapped at me with cold steel in her voice.

"Oh course. You were just being a stupid guy, trying to show off and be cool."

"Excuse me," Brock interjected. "I'm a guy and I wasn't throwing Bugs at you."

"Thanks bro, way to help me out here."

"I wasn't trying to help you out; I was just making sure my own name was clear. I have no interest whatsoever in getting involved in, this."

"I appreciate that Brock. This is between me and Ash."

"Oh come on Misty. I'm just trying to help you out. You can't like your life in fear. Right Pikachu?" My partner was sitting in my lap at the time, eating the crumbs for my sandwich as well as his own Pokéchow, but he looked up at the mention of his name.

That broke her stony anger. Maybe I should have been annoyed that she cared more about Pikachu than me, but I was willing to take any ground she would give me in my attempt to make amends. "What happened to Pikachu?"

I was surprised that before I could begin to answer, Pikachu launched into his own narration. "Pika. Chu chu pika, chupi kachukapichu. Kaka pichu, chukapi kapicachu. Kachukapi chupichuchu, chuchu pikapi kachukapi. Kachupipika chupika pikachukaka."

We all laughed, because Pikachu looked so cute with the proud little look he had on his face when he finished. "It's alright buddy. I wish we could all understand you that would make things so much easier."

"Ka." I patted his head affectionately, and then began my own retelling.

"Wow Pikachu!" Misty exclaimed when I finished. "I didn't know you went through all of that when you were little."

"Yep, he's a pretty brave little Pikachu. And I think if he can go through something like that, and not end up being afraid, then we can help you get over your fear of Bugs."

Immediately, doubt crept over her face. "I don't know if that's a good idea Ash."

Time to throw a little reverse psychology into the mix. "I guess you're tight Misty. Here, give me the Pokeball we accidentally captured Paras in, and I'll release it for you latter."

"No, no, that's okay," She replied quickly.

"Are you sure? I wouldn't want you to have to carry around an evil Bug Pokémon all the time."

"It's not hurting anything where it is. We can just leave it there for now."

My dastardly evil plan was working. I knew Misty couldn't give up a Pokémon. I remember when we gave Larvitar back to Brock, for a spilt second she had this evil glare on her face, and he wasn't even hers. I had guessed, correctly, that it would be even worse with a Pokémon she had actually caught, albeit in a roundabout and unintentional fashion. "But Misty, you can't keep Paras cooped up in a Pokeball forever. You have to let her out to play and run around, at least every once and awhile."

"Well, um, maybe you could do that for me?"

"Oh, so you're giving me Paras?"

"No, I didn't say that."

"But Misty, you can't be Paras's trainer, but give me all of the responsibilities of raising her. That's a failure as a trainer and could be considered borderline negligence by some."

Here it was, the moment of truth. Would Misty's stubbornness win out, or her fear? Brock looked back and forth between us, waiting to see what would happen next. You could almost hear the gears turning in Misty's head as she struggled furiously to choose which was the lesser of two evils. After several minutes of deliberation, she appeared to have finally come to a decision.

"Fine, you can do it."

"Do what?" For a fearful moment I thought she meant releasing Paras.

"Help me get over my fear of Bug Pokémon."

"Yes!" I exclaimed, pumping my fist in celebration.

"Really? Misty that's great!"

"But," she waited until we quieted down to continue, "We're going to do this on my terms, and at my speed. You aren't going to over expose me to Bugs on my first day, and when I say I've had enough, that means stop. Okay?"

"Agreed." We shook hands. "I'm proud of you Misty. This is a big step in the right direction."

"And on that happy note, I think it is time we get going. I would like to make camp at Mt. Moon, but we need to hustle so we can reach it before nightfall."

The rest of our walk was pretty uneventful. Misty was more aware of her surroundings, and didn't try to step on anymore Pokémon, but we all were pretty quiet. I can't speak for the others, but I was planning different things to do with Misty to help her conquer her fear.

As we continued downstream and east, the brook we were following gradually grew into a small river. The mountains to our right were getting shorter and blurring together, so by the time the sun was setting behind us, giving the water a bright, golden glow, they were mostly just a long continuous hill maybe ten feet above us. They were covered in trees though, so it was difficult to tell. To our left, however, the mountains remained just as high, with small streams winding between them swelling the river further. I was glad we were on this side; even if we had to start walking along the slope to avoid the expanding waterway, at least it was mostly dry.

Of course, the moment I thought that, Brock called us to a stop and decided to ruin everything for me. "Alright guys, I think this is where we need to cross."

"Um, here's a question: why? We are making great time over here, and if we cross we're going to have to go wading through all of those streams."

"And you make fun of me for being afraid of Bugs. Afraid to get wet Ash?"

"Hardly. I'm just not particularly fond of drowning."

"Oh, don't be silly. We can just ride across on Gyarados. In fact, if you're that worried about walking through all of those streams, we can just ride Gyarados until Brock tells us we need to get out."

"Well Misty, that wouldn't be very long. You see, the whole reason I want us to cross now is to avoid being in the river later. You see this, is the Cerulean River." For a moment there was complete silence, other than the babbling of the water of course. And then…

"Why didn't you tell me this was the Cerulean River?! You mean we've been walking alongside the same water that feeds my home city for a whole day and you didn't even think to tell me?! What's wrong with you?! I've been over here agonizing over whether or not I should return home soon, and all this you've been leading me in that direction! Don't you need, like, informed consent before you do that to a girl?!"

Pikachu and I, safe from Misty's rage because we were standing behind her, exchanged silent snickers. It was pretty fun when it wasn't happening to us, but by the looks of things we would need to be stepping in soon if we wanted to save our cook.

"Look, Misty, I'm sor…"

"Don't talk! Now I want you to tell me, now, why you didn't tell me earlier about our destination!"

"How am I supposed to answer if you don't want me to talk?"

"Don't be a smart Alex. Just tell me!"

"Misty, I assumed you knew. I figured you would realize we were heading east, and any good map would tell you Pewter was west of Cerulean near the beginning of its river."

"Don't you think I have more important things to do than look at maps?" I nodded in agreement. For some reason this confused Brock, and he shot me a quizzical look.

"What, I can't agree with Misty? I know it's a rare occurrence, but it happens every once and awhile."

"I was sure you were going to make some kind of snide comment about her not looking at maps because she spends all of her time doing her makeup."

"Why would I do that? I don't spend time looking at maps either, so it would be hypocrisy to mock her about it. Plus, I've been with Misty at least a week, and I haven't once seen her even look at a thing of makeup. Anyway, I don't have a monopoly on making snide comments to Misty. If you want to have a go at it ever once and a while I'm cool with that."

"Um, that's okay. I think I'll pass. One probably lives longer if one doesn't insult Misty often." I nodded my head in agreement. "Oh, and to answer your question about crossing the river: The Cerulean River runs southeast until in hits Mt. Moon. At that point, this ridge to the south is basically at the same level as the river, and with mountains to the north and east, the only path the river can take is south, over the ridge and straight down. I don't know about you, but I would prefer not to go down a waterfall, so I am defiantly crossing."

"Now it all makes sense to me. Thanks for the clarification. We had better get this out of the way then." I had already drawn Gyarados's Pokeball and was ready to throw when I realized something. "Misty, maybe we shouldn't cross on Gyarados. I've never actually ridden him, and we know what happened the last time you two had a close encounter."

"Don't worry Ash. That was just a freak accident. I'm sure a well-trained Gyarados can easily carry the three of us and Pikachu across a small river like this with no problem." If only she got over her anger at us so quickly. It's okay to attack her and almost tear her in half, as long as you are a Water Pokémon, but if you're a human who teases her, you'd better run for your life.

I decided not to ask what she considered well trained. Considering the fact that the only two times I had used him was when fighting strong opponents, I didn't know if Gyarados listened to me just for direction in battle, or as its actual trainer. We were about to find out.

"Gyarados, I choose you!" The Atrocious Pokémon landed in the water, screaming its trademark roar. "Gyarados, we need you to carry the three of us and Pikachu on your back across this river. Can you do that?" He gave a sharp growl, as if disgusted that I even doubted him. "I'll take that as a yes then. Move a bit closer to the shore so we can climb on."

It wasn't overly difficult. Brock had picked a great spot to get on: a shallow area where the current was slower. By putting our shoes and socks in our backpacks and rolling up our pant legs we were able to keep anything important from getting wet. For seating arrangements, I sat up front between two of Gyarados's frill things to give commands, while Misty and Brock sat in that order directly behind the second of these frills. Pikachu, being a daredevil, took up position on our ferry's head.

Just a few minutes later we were off. Although it would have been relatively easy for Gyarados to just swim across the river since the river wasn't much wider than Gyarados was long, Brock said there was a sort of sweet spot that we should be aiming for further downstream. At first things were all smooth sailing (no pun intended) but things started to go wrong just after Mt. Moon came into view.

I was so enraptured with the size and beauty of the great mountain that I didn't immediately notice Brock's warning. "What's up Brock?" I asked when his yelling at me finally got my attention. Before he could answer, I discovered the problem wasn't up; it was down. We were just passing a rather large stream, so large, in fact, that its own current sideswiped us and sent us flying to the right. It almost caused Gyarados to roll, and it was only quick thinking from all of us, human and Pokémon alike that kept the passengers from getting a lot wetter than we would have liked.

Even after that ordeal was over, we barely had time to recover before we faced our next challenge. We were traveling much faster down the river now, our speed increasing with each new tributary, and I barely had time to react when Brock started yelling at me, "Ash it's there! We need to land there."

The "there" to which he was refereeing was an open stretch of land around thirty feet long running from the last tributary (that I could see) all the way to the foot of the mountain. When I told Gyarados where we need to go, he immediately arced his body out of the water and over the current. Even before we had landed, somehow I knew he had misjudged the jump; as his head came down it got whipped around by the current and the rest of his body was quick to follow.

Now we were in real trouble. Gyarados was turning over and over, trashing madly in his attempt to surface. I twisted backwards, threw my arms around Gyarados's fin and grabbed Misty's hands in an attempt to keep her as safe as possible. A similar thought crossed my head when I felt a furry yellow something smack my body and I quickly tucked my partner under my arm.

Everything was twisting around in endless circles and I couldn't tell which way was up. All I could see was random distorted rushes of light; all I could hear was a roaring in my ears, and everything, _everything _was surrounded in what seemed to be an endless expanse of water.

Then, when I was certain I was a goner, Gyarados gave a mighty heave and threw himself out of the water.

I tried to hold onto Misty and Pikachu, but I could feel them slipping through my cold, wet hands despite my best efforts. I landed with a loud splat by the side of the river, and three similar noises told me my companions had made it also. Something inside of me was saying that I had to get up, but darkness was creeping in around the edges of my brain. I needed to get up, I needed to check on them, I needed to…I needed to…I needed…

**Hello folks. I hope that you haven't been waiting too long for this chapter. This one is shorter than most of the others, so I think I've been able to get it up quicker. **

**So this chapter and the next one basically exist just to push forward four very important plot points. I think it is pretty clear what one of them is, since that's really the central theme to this chapter, and the second one, while touched one here, will be pretty important next chapter. The third one wasn't very subtle, so a close examination should tell you what it was, but can you guess the fourth major plot point? It seems glaringly obvious to me (then again I wrote it), but it might not be to the casual reader. 50 house points to the person who can correctly identify all four. (Slytherin for the win!) Yes! A not so subtle ploy to get more reviews that might actually work! (The Emerald Dragon takes a moment to pat himself on the back and let out an evil laugh)**

**Right. Anyway, I defiantly won't be getting the next chapter up any time soon. I am going on a leadership retreat for band starting today, and after that we have to weeks of band camp. I'll try to write as much as possible during my down times, but don't expect anything till late August. **

**I am toying with an idea of showing the points of view of different important characters, and not just Ash and Misty. Obviously those two will still be the main focus, but I might include some insight from Brock, as well as updates on the actions of our favorite criminal trio. If you have any specific requests for sections "written by" characters we have already seen, message me and I will see what I can do. **

**Until next time, Emerald Dragon, Out! **


End file.
